Reform
by CatGirlFireflare
Summary: A certain Boggan leader didn't die when he was trapped inside the giant knob in that tree. And it just so happens there are some creatures who've made it their job to get rid of tree-knobs caused by the Boggans. What happens when some of them find our certain Boggan leader, and one of them- who changed the fate of someone close to him- decides to take him back home to her human?
1. Chapter 1

An adult female Peregrine falcon clawed at a branch, her leather jesses waving in the breeze high in a tree. There was no prey for her here, and she did not need to land and rest yet. So why was she scraping her talons on this branch?

The reason, had to do with her part-time job. For most predatory birds here in the forest, it was a full-time job for when they weren't hunting. Most of them enjoyed it, and she was no exception.

Their job, mostly a self-appointed one, was basically to be the clean-up crew after battles between the Leafmen and Boggans. Because of the hideous rot in the Boggans' arrows, trees frequently became diseased with little bumpy lumps of the toxic stuff.

So, to preserve the health of their homes, nests, perches, and their preys' food, the raptors would cut away at the bumps of diseased wood and pick them off. Thus, the trees were healthier, as was the entire forest.

The Peregrine falcon finally succeeded in ripping the hard lump off of the branch. It was an older lump, which was not good for the tree. But, now that it was off, it could do no more harm, and would simply disintegrate after a while on the forest floor, providing some nutrients for the grass.

The raptor bobbed her head to herself, pleased. She'd already eaten, and was full of energy, eager to assist the native raptors. Now to find another lump or two, before returning to her perch-human. It was near evening, and the female human would probably begin to worry once the sky grew dark.

After a few tiny-shifts of the sun and shadows, the falcon spotted what must have been the most enormous lump she had ever seen. Another two raptors, a male and a female red-tailed hawk, were already there- busily gouging away at it with their beaks and talons.

They'd made an impressive gash in the side of the huge lump, but they looked tired.

The Peregrine screeched a greeting, and both hawks turned to look at her.

"Relay," the female hawk called in acknowledgement, bobbing her head in welcome as the falcon alighted on a nearby branch, lower than the hawks.

The falcon, Relay as she called herself, bobbed back, answered- the hawk's name, "Sunny Ash"- and shuffled her feet on the branch, inviting the hawks to rest and converse alongside her.

Sunny Ash, the light tan-speckled female, flicked her wings to accept the invitation, and flapped down to land slightly higher along the sloping branch than Relay. Positioning along a branch determined rank and level of familiarity and respect, and Relay acknowledged her hawk friend's seniority with a respectful dip of her dark-feathered head.

After some hesitation, the male hawk, a juvenile and probably Sunny Ash's son, joined them, landing at the same height on the branch as Relay. He did not know Relay, and was being careful. The falcon bobbed her head in acknowledgement of his cautious respect, and the fact that she- while a little older- was a mere guest in this forest.

The younger male hawk cocked his head, looking at the dangling brown straps tied on Relay's legs, which fluttered slightly in the warm breeze.

Relay lifted one leg and shook one of the long straps lightly, then let go and shook her head. "These are human things," she explained, flapping up a few wing-beats and settling back down in the same spot, "A difficulty to remove, but they do not cause great hindrance."

The male hawk- light tan belly feathers fading to gray-ish light brown on his back- nodded his head slowly, then introduced himself, "My name is River Sand. Knowledge of your presence spreads to a fair number of raptors in this forest."

The falcon nodded back, "I know of this. Thank you. I am Relay." She then addressed both of the red-tailed hawks, gesturing towards the huge lump on the tree, "I see much of your work on the giant blight-lump here. The work is admirable. May I continue it for you?"

River Sand looked at his mother and nodded slightly. Sunny Ash bobbed her head to him in agreement, then to Relay, adding, "Yes. Many thanks. It has been a great effort after much time."

"It looks to be difficult," Relay agreed, "But I have long moments, a fair number of more tiny-shifts of the sun, left before I am expected to return to my perch-human."

Sunny Ash nodded slowly, then suggested, "I shall assist for a small time, since now I have rested. River Sand, might you catch prey?"

"Yes," he decided, "That is good. I need a small catch of food. How much food do both of you need?" Sunny Ash, in etiquette towards the guest, looked to Relay to request prey first.

Relay preened her belly-feathers and cleaned her beak in reply, "I need no food at this moment. I caught and ate enough meat, a small number of tiny-shifts of the sun ago. Thank you for the offer."

River Sand bobbed his head and looked to Sunny Ash, who requested a small catch and thanked him. The male bobbed his head to his mother, and then took off, shaking the branch slightly.

Relay gave a small screech, ready to work, and flapped over to the huge blight-lump to help complete Sunny Ash's and River Sand's almost-finished task.

It took at least two small-shifts of the sun before the enormous lump began to shift and hang more loosely from the tree bark. At that time, River Sand returned, blood smeared on his beak and talons, which carried a dead - and still-warm - rodent for Sunny Ash.

"Thank you," Sunny Ash told him, then asked Relay, "Might I rest and eat while you continue?" "Of course," Relay assured her, bobbing her head and flicking her wings toward the branch they'd rested on earlier.

"I will clean off from my hunting, and then assist you, Relay," River Sand suggested, alighting on the branch next to his mother. Sunny Ash nodded in approval of her son's politeness, and tore into her meal.

Within a tiny-shift of the sun, River Sand finished cleaning off and flapped over to help Relay. They both noticed a faint noise, and looked for a hiding prey animal, but found none.

The two raptors told Sunny Ash of it, and- after placing her meal on the branch- she came to investigate. They could still find nothing. So they ignored it, Sunny Ash returned to her food, and after another tiny-shift of the sun, the job was nearly entirely completed.

The noise from earlier grew more noticeable, but nothing was affected by it, so they continued to ignore it in favor of finishing their job. For the moment.

"Sunny Ash," Relay called, "Shall we all pull the blight-lump off together?" "Yes! That will be very good," Sunny Ash agreed, having completely finished eating her meal. She flew to Relay and River Sand and the raptors all latched their talons onto the lump, pulling it off together with a great crunching and ripping noise.

The odd sound immediately grew in volume, and seemed to be emanating from the torn-off blight-lump. Curious, all three raptors decided to investigate it further. Sunny Ash, the largest and thus the strongest of them, carried the heavy thing to a crook in the tree with readily-accessible perches nearby.

Sunny Ash set it down in the middle of where the tree-limbs grew from, as the other two raptors landed on the thick branches. They were eager to discover the interesting noise-making thing that was most likely inside of the unusually huge blight-lump.

The wood was very thick on the outer side, too thick to claw through in a small amount of time. And the raptors did not want to waste time. About half a Sun-shift had already passed from when Relay had come, to then as they sat pondering.

River Sand suggested turning it over and digging into it from the once-attached-to-the-tree side, like gutting a catch of prey instead of trying to bite through its spine.

After less than a tiny-shift of the sun, which was setting, the blight-lump had a small hole clawed into it from the raptors' talons. They hadn't used their beaks; blight-lumps might've had bad things that could make a raptor ill.

The noise was now recognized as a voice talking, and had been muffled by the wood of the blight-lump. The speaking was quick, like Boggans' and Leafmen's speech, and sounded impatient.

"It's-about-time-you-got-me-out-of-here!" the voice declared, very quick and slightly high-pitched.

Then a small blue-ish gray thing scrambled out. It was smaller than a mouse, stood on two legs, and had the skin and fur and long, pointed ears from a dead bat on its head and back.

It looked startled at the sight of three raptors standing around it.

River Sand hissed in hostility, Sunny Ash let out a small squawk of surprise, and Relay cocked her head with a small trill of curiosity.

It was the Boggan-leader Mandrake!

**If the way the birds talk is confusing, sorry! It's just the way I figured birds of prey might speak amongst one another. A 'tiny-shift of the sun' would be about 5 to 10 minutes, since the birds of prey can see a tiny shift in the shadows caused by the sun.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Why is this in the blight-lump?" Relay inquired, glancing up from the small grey noisy creature to look at Sunny Ash and River Sand.

The female hawk was leery of the small thing, and her son was very agitated. Said-son hissed again at the small, gray, dead-bat-head-wearing thing and then explained tersely to Relay, "This creature is dangerous. It is called Mhan-drayk, and led the slimy rot-bringing Boggans and caused much destruction."

River Sand swiped his talons at it. The small thing- Mandrake- waved a small stick at the young hawk, who hissed again and hopped backwards, wings flaring.

Sunny Ash poked the small thing rather hard with her talons, pushing it back into the huge blight-lump. The small thing, no, creature, let out an indignant little yell. It glared out of the torn blight-lump, looking funnily like a mouse sticking it's head out of a beehive.

"This small creature looks familiar," Relay told her companions, "I think I caught a similar-looking creature out of the air when it fell off of a shiny black prey-bird, approximately a quarter of a moon-cycle ago. The small thing I caught was wearing the skin and fur and skull from a dead rat, and had an arrow sticking out of its chest."

"An Osprey told me he saw this happen," River Sand interjected briefly, keeping his sharp eyes locked on the small creature in the blight-lump.

"It was mentioned by others," Sunny Ash brought up, "that the Boggan leader lost his son during a small fight with a Leafman, with shiny black prey-birds and a tiny buzzing quick-bird, after the special gathering at the pond.

This happened on the day before the moon was full, approximately a quarter of a moon-cycle ago. Possibly the small thing you caught was this creature's son." She gestured with one talon at the gray thing glaring out from inside the blight-lump.

"The small creature here is dangerous," River Sand hissed, "It endangers the forest. We should kill it." "How?" Sunny Ash questioned, "It is not good to touch Boggans- they spread blight and disease to the plants, and they spread rot to everything."

Relay gave a low, grim screech, "Yes. I saw a red-tailed hawk whose leg had been accidentally stuck by a Boggan's arrow. The hawk told me that he had to cut off flesh of the leg that was stuck by the arrow. I believe he would now have difficulty landing and taking off."

"Yes," River Sand hissed, still ruffled, "He is my father's brother, named Dark Branch. He has some difficulty catching prey. My father is visiting Dark Branch to bring food for him today."

"That is kind and good of your father," Relay told him deferentially, dipping her head and showing respect for the effort and time spent to aid a family member.

"Thank you," River Sand told her, then returned to the subject they had been discussing earlier, "We could close up this blight-lump with the bad creature inside, and drop it out of this tree. It would hit the ground very hard and die."

"It might survive that," Sunny Ash warned, "The wood of the blight-lump could lessen the damage caused by the impact of the ground. And then this bad creature would escape."

Relay thought for a moment, and then trilled in excitement, "I can take the bad creature to a place where it cannot escape! My perch-human sometimes collects large insects and keeps them in large clear things from which they cannot escape until she studies them and lets them go. One of the clear hollow objects could contain this small bad creature."

"It is not good to let this bad creature live. It is dangerous," Sunny Ash cautioned, then hissed loudly as said-bad-creature tried to scurry out of the partially hollowed-out blight-lump.

Relay caught the small thing in her beak as it jumped, then placed it on the branch and held the thing down with two of her talons. The small creature demanded to be released, and hit the branch with the small stick.

A glob of dark goo on the stick touched the branch, and a several diseased, lumpy blight-bumps immediately grew there, and began spreading, as quick as ripples in a pond. The raptors screeched in alarm, and flapped away several wing-beats as the tree-limb started rotting away.

The small bad creature jumped away from them along the branch, then ran towards the edge of the tree limb towards a neighboring tree.

River Sand slashed at the bad creature with his talons but missed, claws swiping through the air just behind it. The goo-tipped stick grazed one of the hawk's feathers, and he screeched in alarm and panic before ripping it out. The torn-off feather crinkled into dust and blew away as River Sand flapped away in horror.

Thankfully, his only wound was a little dot of blood from having ripped out the piece of his wing. It'd regrow, and he'd be more careful in the future.

Sunny Ash screeched in panic for her son, saw with relief that he was safe, and then pounced at the bad thing with both sets of talons, aiming for its head. But the small bad thing ducked down and jumped away between the curved blades and continued running.

Relay had soared out of the tree, and swooped forwards. Peregrines were known for their astonishing speed, and Relay easily lived up to her species' fame.

She snatched the small creature out of the air just as it jumped for the next tree. The Peregrine let out a screech of triumph as she soared up into the air, clutching the small thing firmly between her claws.

"Aahg!-let-me-go,-you-sack-of-feathers!" the small thing yelled. Relay thought this demand to be very foolish, since she was flying rather high up above the trees and the small creature would die if Relay let it go. She loosened her grip slightly, tilting downwards so that the small thing could just how very high up they were.

"_Bhhaahtd_," (Bad) she told the small thing in its own language, a difficult feat for a bird, and let go with one set of talons. The small thing dangled precariously in the air, much to its surprise and displeasure.

It was more difficult holding it with only one foot, so the falcon put her talons back around it. She didn't want it to fall, at least not yet; the small thing was quite fun. It was like having a toy from her perch-human to play with, but one that was alive.

Relay flapped back towards Sunny Ash and River Sand, who were hovering near the tree. As she approached, the small thing hit one of her talons with its goo-stick. Relay let go in alarm, then caught it again with the opposite foot before the creature could fall.

She scraped at the talon frantically with her beak, thinking that it was about to start rotting. ...But nothing happened. Relay examined her claw very closely, but saw no signs of any damage.

Just a small glob of goo, doing nothing. Well. That was good.

The small bad creature looked very unhappy about this. Even more so when Relay grabbed the stick between two claws and pulled it away. The small creature snapped at her in its fast speaking language and pulled the stick back.

Relay hissed at the small creature, and used her claws to break off the end of the stick that had the goo on it. This made the small thing start yelling again.

"I am going to get rid of this bad rotting-goo," Relay told Sunny Ash and River Sand, "I will put it back in the blight-lump, and no harm will come to healthy tree limbs."

Sunny Ash nodded, glaring at the small bad thing. River Sand nodded and hissed, adding that he would first shove the blight-lump out of the tree, and then Relay could put the dangerous object inside. Relay agreed; if she put the goo-stick in first, it might fall out as the lump fell, and could spread more rot.

The young hawk swooped down from his branch towards the blight-lump, which was about the same size as himself, and kicked it with his claws. It shifted toward the edge of the tree-limbs, and River Sand struck it again. The lump shifted closer to the edge.

The small creature trapped in Relay's talons cocked its head, the long bat-ears making the movement easy to see. Relay flapped a little closer, holding the small creature in one set of talons, and the goo-tipped stick-piece in the other.

River Sand hit the blight-lump again, beating his wings hard. Sunny Ash told her son that she would assist him, and flew over to help. The two hawks struck the huge lump, which teetered at the edge of the tree before plummeting down and crashing to the forest floor.

Relay bobbed her head in appreciation, and swooped down with the goo-stick. It made very unpleasant sizzling noises that made her feathers stand on end, and she dropped it into the hole in the blight-lump, then quickly flapped away from it and landed on the ground.

The small thing she held in her claws protested and reached for the stick piece, but couldn't reach it, and it made a growling noise of frustration. Relay was just focusing on being careful not to put too much weight on the foot that she was holding the creature in.

The two hawks flew down to land on lower branches, and River Sand continued down to the forest floor. He landed quickly and began kicking dust and dirt on the blight-lump.

"Thank you," the Peregrine told River Sand, bobbing her head to him and Sunny Ash, "I will take the small creature away now."

"Good!" River Sand screeched, glaring venomously at the bad creature, which struggled to free itself from Relay's grasp. She squeezed slightly, causing it to make a high-pitched groaning noise and smack the falcon's claws with what was left of its twig.

Relay cocked her head at the futile attempt, then flapped her wings and sailed up into the sky. The sun was almost half way hidden by the horizon, and the Peregrine felt guilty for staying outside so long.

Her perch-human would be very worried by now.

**I'm not certain if the rot-ooze would actually affect a bird's claws. Are they made of keratin, like human fingernails, or made of bone? Either way, in this story, the goo can't harm their beaks or talons. Also, the raptors here have their own language: different noises, gestures, movements, etc, mainly body language. So that's why they say little-to-nothing in Leafmen/Small People language or human languages. The raptors understand what Leafmen and others say because they've heard Leafmen talking a lot.**

**And did you notice? Relay said she caught a similar-looking-creature-to-Mandrake? *grins* Guess who! (He'll be mentioned again later. And in case you're wondering, NO, Relay did NOT eat him.)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello! And thank you to both of my reviewers for reviewing!**

**To DarkraixCresselia: Wow, you did? That's so cool! 'Great minds think alike,' I have heard. It's still always weird when finding a FanFic, movie, book, etc. that's had a similar idea as me, and I guess the same goes for everyone. Ohhhh wow; the coincidence goes further, because that's what Relay's human is gonna do as well. O.O Thank you very much for the compliment!**

**To Rose Jennison: Yeah, I found Dagda's death to be very sad, and it showed that Mandrake really loved his son a lot. Ah, yes, I will explain my idea of Dagda's not-death eventually. Good question, and no, the Leafmen and Boggans don't know. Here, only some types of animals are sentient, like the intelligent predatory creatures.**

**Thank you both for your very nice and kind reviews!**

Relay soared higher into the sky, then tucked in her pointed wings and dove, angling so that it was at a shallow decent. This would cause her to reach the dwelling-place of her and her perch-human much sooner.

The falcon tilted her head and looked down as she heard a shrill noise coming from the small creature. It was yelling "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" and holding on very tightly to Relay's claws with one hand. With the other, it held the edge wildly fluttering dead-bat-hide that it wore on its head, its yellow eyes very wide in alarm.

The panicked shouting was unpleasantly loud to Relay's sensitive ears, and she hissed faintly at the small creature. "_Khahh-yyhit, fpleeehs_," (Quiet, please) she rasped at the small creature, speaking to it in its language. That was difficult for raptors to do, for their beaks and throats were not designed for such speech.

The small thing huffed and glared at Relay, "Release-me-immediately-or-I-will-send-for-an-army -of-Boggans-to-come-here!"

"_Nnnho_," (No) Relay told it- him- firmly. She was not going to let this bad creature go free to damage the forest. And in addition, she could outfly any prey-birds that the Boggans rode in battle, so if the army came, it would not be any great problem for her.

The small thing bared its teeth at Relay and then let out a hoarse howl. "HRaaAAAAAAAAAUUUHH!"

Relay screeched in surprise at the loud noise and shook the small thing from side to side, hissing at it, "_Ss'hop nho-eeehs!_" (Stop noise) The small creature didn't stop his noise, but it did falter a small bit as Relay shook him back and forth.

The falcon hissed again and flew faster, soaring up higher and diving again. The noise paused for a moment, then got louder, and Relay faintly noticed another sound in between the pauses. It sounded like snapping, leathery wing-beats.

"That sound of flapping is familiar," she spoke aloud to herself, and slowed, turning to look in the direction of the new noise. The flapping noise came from a bat flying towards her.

Relay had occasionally seen bats before, very rarely, in the late evenings. They had been farther away then, and now this bat was closer. It was interesting, so she flew towards it to investigate.

"What?-What-are-you-doing?" asked the small creature in her claws, sounding confused.

"_Ahy cyehh-reeyis,_" (I curious) Relay answered, flying closer. The bat seemed confused now that the small creature's noise had stopped, and began flying away quickly.

The small person frantically started up his howling noise again, and the bat came back, but gave Relay a wide berth. It was able to tell that she was a predatory creature like the owls that preyed on its kind, and this made it afraid.

Relay bobbed her head at it in a friendly gesture, but the bat did not understand it. During all of this time, the small person had been making the howling noise, but now it seemed tired, and stopped. Relay could feel it between her claws, breathing heavily.

The bat flew away quickly- it was alarmed by the dead-bat-shape held in Relay's claws, and did not want to be nearby.

"Perhaps I will find and follow a bat during a different time," The Peregrine decided aloud; she could try to find the interesting furry flying creatures later, and continued on her course. The sun was almost completely hidden by the horizon now.

"Where-are-you-taking-me-anyhow?" the small person held in her talons asked, sounding weary- tired and apprehensive.

"_Hyooh-mhihnng_," (Human) Relay answered. They were very close to her home now, and she could hear her perch-human making noises that were similar to Peregrine-screeches. She was trying to call to Relay, which meant that she was worried for the raptor.

Relay called back, a light and happy trill-screech. As she flew towards her perch-human, the small gray-ish person between her claws exclaimed in surprise, "A-stomper?" His tone turned scornful, "Ha! Such-a-proud-creature, the-groveling-pet-of-a-stomper!"

Relay ignored him and soared to her perch-human, who smiled in relief and held up her arm with the large brown glove on it. She called, "Goood giirrl, Whirrlwiinnd! C'meere!"

Relay flared her wings to slow her descent, and her small prisoner spoke nervously, "What're-you-doing,-bird?-Get-out-of-here!"

"_Nnnho_," (No) Relay told him, fluttering over to land carefully on the large brown glove. She leaned her weight on one foot, holding the small person with the other.

('Glove' was one of the many words Relay had learned from her perch-human, 'Mac-seen.' Maxine had also taught her the words 'house' and 'treat,' things that did not exist outside of the world of humans, which Relay had heard the Leafmen call 'stompers.'

'The house' was also called 'home' and 'inside,' while the forest was called 'outside' and 'the wild.' Spoken language was a strange thing. Humans/stompers spoke it slowly, while Leafmen and flower-people and other sentient small-creatures spoke it quickly.)

"Ohhoohh," Relay's perch human laughed, spotting the small thing clutched in the falcon's claws in the dark, "Diid yoou brriing mee aannotherr onne of yyourr 'prressennts'?" Relay cocked her head to one side, then the other: Not exactly.

But her perch-human's guess was close enough, so Relay bobbed her head, flicking her tail feathers for balance.

(Head-bobbing was one of many ways for Raptor-birds to show interest, friendliness, agreement, etc, but her perch-human seemed to think that it always and only meant 'yes.')

"Is thiis aannotherr deead biirrd yyou waannt cooked uup?" the perch-human asked, smiling as she carried Relay on her arm inside the house, "Yyoou donn't **aalwayys** haave too eeat them coooked."

"WHAT?!" the small blue-ish gray person shrieked, struggling harder. Relay swung her head in a wide arch in response to her perch-human's question, something that she'd learned from Maxine that meant 'no.'

"Nno?" Maxine asked, "Welll thenn whhat'd yyou bring?" In response, Relay flapped off of the large glove and landed on one foot on her tall wooden perch. In her other foot, she held up the small blue-ish gray person, which was writhing around, trying to escape.

"Whaat...?" Relay's perch-human murmured, squinting her eyes and walking closer. Relay's captive tried to pry the falcon's toes off of himself with the pointy end of his twig. It hurt slightly.

He writhed viciously and glared at the human, who was leaning in close to look at the strange thing in the falcon's grasp. Relay thought she heard a small growling noise coming from the prisoner.

"Iis that aa baat orr sommethi-...?" Maxine started asking, then jumped back and exclaimed in surprise, "WHOOA! Whaat _is_ thaat?!"

**Idea: Maxine raised Relay from when she was a chick, and named her 'Whirlwind,' while Relay calls herself Relay. Maxine lets Relay hunt, but trained her to come back, during the first part of her life, by having Relay come back to get her dead prey cooked and eaten at home. I got the idea from a book, "My side of the mountain."**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hii! And oh my goodness those lovely reviews! I love you people, thank you so much! I literally started writhing in joy on the couch I'd been sitting on when I read them. **

**Also, as something I find funny: My sis brought an old, delicate book (of awesome brilliance about Utahraptor dinos) into school. When I saw her in lunch, I asked urgently, "Is it ok?!" She said, in such a similar way to Mub, "It's _fi-ine!_" I grinned and almost said, like Mandrake, "Good. Because if _it_ dies, _you_ die." But I worried someone might overhear, hahaha.**

**To Seesshomaruismine99: Haha, yay! I'm so very, very glad that you liked the time-idea; I was worried it'd seem annoying after a bit. Your dad liked it too? Yippee! ... Uh, did I 'no maybe?' what...? Have Dagda being alive...? *grins* Yep. 8) ... More? Ok, ok, don't worry: soon!**

**To Blob:** **Wow, cool! Hahaha, that's _awesome_! I like seeing 'bad' guys getting a second chance and eventually being good guys. Thank you so very very much!**

The small dead-bat-wearing person growled in aggravation, trying to pry Relay's claws off of himself. The pointed stick kept poking her feet and it hurt. The small thing yelled at Relay, "Let-me-go-you-giant-fleabag!"

"_Nhhohhht flheee_," (Not flea) Relay hissed at him.

"Ohh!" Maxine gasped in concern, noticing the new marks on Relay's feet, "Oh no! Wirrlwind, you're hurrt! Llett's get thiis thiing inn a jarr!"

Ah yes, the clear containers were called 'jars'! Relay sometimes forgot what some human-things were called. She'd be very pleased once she didn't have to hold this small noisy thing anymore!

Said-noisy thing had just wriggled both arms free and smacked his fists, and his twig, on Relay's thin wooden perch. To the falcon's shock, the thin structure creaked, and a large crack jolted its way through it all the way to the floor, splitting it in two large pieces and several tiny ones.

Relay shrieked and leaped into the air, beating her wings in panic, and Maxine whirled around and gasped in surprise. The perch, which had been made of a thin tree-branch and had a thick, long horizontal stick attached to the top, shattered, and the splintered pieces clattered to the ground.

Relay hissed; the bad creature had escaped from her: it'd fallen from her claws to the hard floor when she leaped up. The small person gasped/yelped loudly as he hit the ground, then staggered to his feet and jumped- lopsidedly- away, towards the window.

The falcon dove at him, but with not enough room and too many obstacles, she couldn't build up speed and she missed, scrabbling on the wooden floor.

The small person leapt out of the way and started climbing up a table-leg by the window- a little crookedly. When Relay swiped at him again, he jumped off the table-leg, flipped, and landed on her back, hands and feet tickling slightly as he scrambled up her shoulders.

"Ha-HA!-Got-you-now!" the small bad creature cheered to himself, grabbing hold of several of the soft feathers on Relay's neck. The falcon screeched and flapped her wings in surprise, hopping backwards unsteadily.

"Come-on-come-on-_come-ON_," the bad person muttered, yanking Relay's feathers to one side and causing her to shriek again.

"_HSStohhhhpph!_" (Stop) the Peregrine hissed, shaking her head side to side and trying to get the bad thing OFF! It yanked the falcon's feathers again, twisting her head abruptly to one side and making her stumble.

"Urmf,-_well_,-not-as-easy-to-handle-as-a-_grackle_!" _*_ the unpleasant bad person muttered loudly, struggling to hold on (said it the way- if you've seen 'HowToTrainYourDragon'- Stoic did when wresting the Nadders in the net).

Relay hissed and backed into the table-leg, attempting to pin the small bad person behind her.

But Relay mis-aimed and hit her back and side on the tall wooden thing, earning a small amount of pain for her effort. She tried again, but the small thing leaped off just in time to save itself, and landed on the floor.

Relay detected a faint grunt of pain and saw the small creature stumble as it landed. She cocked her head, instincts zeroing in on the tiny details that meant weakness or illness or injury. Slightly strained expression, one foot slightly off the ground, the muffled and restrained groan of discomfort.

Relay flapped forward to pounce on the small person, but it jumped away again, smacking at her head with its stick as it did so. Relay shook her head rapidly and swiped a wing at the small person, whacking it with the tips of several long feathers.

Being so small and light, the bad person was sent flying, and smacked into the wood edge of the table. It grunted in pain and loss of air, but managed to grab onto the edge and pull itself up, making thin, shallow little claw-marks in the wood-edges.

Relay was already there, standing between the small creature and the window, blocking his escape route.

The small person growled, baring his teeth and wielding his stick determinedly. He raised it up to smash down with the same surprising amount of force as before, this time on the glass center of the table, but then he was in a jar!

Maxine had finally found a clear container and had flipped it upside-down to bring it quickly down around the small creature, effectively trapping it. The small person jumped back in surprise, bumping into the curved wall of the jar and looking around in wild, startled confusion.

Relay hopped closer, cocking her head in interest. Trapped things were interesting.

The small person smashed his fists against the wall of the clear container, but it didn't break. As he lifted his arms (and that twig again), Maxine yanked the upside-down jar across the table and off the edge, then instantly flipped it right-side-up once more.

Before the small creature could climb out, or even stand back up again, the human smacked on a metal lid on the jar's opening, and twisted it around firmly.

The metal cover had tiny holes in it to allow air in and out, or so the girl had mentioned to Relay before. She spoke to Relay often. And to 'Tum-bull-weed', the furry brown-and-black thing with a partially-bitten-off tail and one pointy ear, and who hissed and 'mreow'ed and had sometimes chased Relay when she was little.

At that moment, Tumbleweed came trotting into the room, looking about with round green eyes and his remaining triangular ear pricked. He sniffed around and slithered between Maxine's leg, "Mrrow?"

"Heyy, ssillly kiitty," the human greeted, leaning down while holding the jar up with one hand and gently stroking the furry animal's head with the other. The little creature inside of the jar wobbled, trying to keep its balance and putting its arms up against the glass walls.

The human girl stood back up and cocked her head at the small thing inside the jar. It took an aggressive stance, hunching its shoulders and leaning forward slightly, as if preparing- and eager- for a fight.

Maxine looked puzzled slightly, and placed the jar on the table, and Relay hopped to one side to look at it from a different angle. The little person inside the container backed up slightly, away from the looming human who peered inside.

Tumbleweed looked up at the jar on the table, meowed to announce that he was bored, and padded away, probably to take a nap.

Relay again noticed that one of the small person's legs were held slightly off of the ground. The falcon gave a small squawk, to alert her human, and held up her own foot, miming an injury. Then she stopped, pointed with her beak at the small person trapped in the jar, and held up her foot again.

"Iit's hurrt?" the girl asked, gesturing to the small person, and Relay bobbed her head. Yes, but not badly.

Sometimes if the girl caught a bug or some other small animal, she'd try to help it if it was injured or sick, and Relay had the sharp eyes for noticing those hidden details.

The human moved her head closer to the jar, peering inside more closely. The small person inside of the jar backed up against the clear wall, tensed up and aggressive. And still wielding his twig.

"Heey, uumm," Maxine asked it, cocking her head, "Doo yoou speak?"

The small person scowled, and the human continued in explanation, "Wwelll yyou donn't loook like aan annimmal exaactly. Aannd yyoou'rre wwearring cllotthhess. Sooo... II wwouldd aassumme senntiiennce."

The small person just glared.

"Well you'rre probaably goiing to be stayying heere a whille," the human girl told him in exasperation, "Soo II'd like some cooperaationn!" Relay flexed her talons and let out a small screech to emphasize her human's rather-good-point to the hostile small person.

With still no response, Maxine sighed and asked Relay helplessly, "Welll Whirrllwinnd, do _yoou_ think iit can speeak?"

Relay lifted her head up and brought it down to her toes, then up again, and then down. "Oooohhh-kay," the human scoffed, lifting up one shoulder and letting drop again.

"Ugh,-well-for-one-thing-I'll-have-you-know-that-I -am-not-an-'it,'" the small creature informed the human acidly, obviously annoyed and with his pride stinging.

"Ohh cool, yyou _do_ taalk!" Maxine exclaimed, "But iin... squeeaks?"

The small person groaned in annoyance, "Oh-_per_fect,-I'm-stuck-here-with-a-slow- and-idiotic-stomper.-This-is-humiliating."

Relay hissed at him for the insult to her human, and he scowled at her.

"Whyy'd yyou hiisss?" Maxine asked Relay, "Waait, did yyou underrstand what it saaid?" Relay did the exaggerated nodding-motion again.

"Neat! Wwhat waas he sayying?" the girl asked, excited. Relay looked at her blankly and screeched.

"Ohh, riight, sorrryy; yoou caan't speeak human laanguage," Maxine apologized, "II forrget sommetiimes."

**Maxine is really close to her animals, so she talks with them almost the way someone else would talk with other humans. _*_(Also, I know in the movie the Boggans' birds are supposedly crows, but they look more like grackles, so that's what I'll call them here.)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hiii, thank you wonderful reviewer people! For this chapter, ya get to see it mostly from Mandrake's point of view! **

**I find this to be fun, but also difficult to write: trying to figure out how he would react in a situation where he has completely no control. Only times that happened in the movie was as MK and the others were escaping (Mandrake is pulled down by Ronin and falls, yelling), and when he's eventually defeated (again, more yelling and glaring). So I don't exactly have much to work with besides some glaring and yelling, and I am really sorry if Mandrake seems a bit out-of-character here. I'm trying my best with mainly pride and spitefulness, and I hope you'll enjoy the chapter!**

**Oh yeah, almost forgot: disclaimer! I don't own 'EPIC.' I'm not _nearly_ awesome enough to own it.**

**To sesshomaroismine99: Ah, ok. Thank you for clarifying, and I'm glad that you seem to be liking it. I can't wait to type up the chapters with Dagda in them! Heh heh, yup, it's just how I pictured him muttering/yelling it, like how Stoic did.**

**To Brucrew17: Thank you for the compliment. Ah good, I'm glad you liked it. Thank you, I'm trying my best. Ok, I'm glad you like it. Any complaints or pieces of advice?**

**Ok now, on to the chapter!**

"Wwellll," the stomper girl stated, "Wwhaaat aarre wwee gooiing too doo wwiith yyoou?" (**Sorry if the slow stomper/human-speech gets annoying**.)

The Boggan leader glared up at her. He couldn't believe he'd gotten out of that wretched tree just to be snatched up by a bunch of crazy predatory birds.

And now he was stuck here- in this hollow clear thing- a prisoner in the house of this big, dumb, slow stomper. And something was wrong with his left foot- he couldn't walk on it that well. He'd probably landed wrong after he fell from that thin wooden thing the bird had been sitting on.

Great. How was he going to escape and ruin the forest **now**?

"Hhooww caann Wwhiirrllwinnd unnnderrstaannd yyoou annyywaayy?" the stomper asked, seeming to just be talking to herself, not expecting any answer from him. Well, Mandrake didn't feel like **giving** her an answer **anyway**.

A movement to the side caught his eye, and he glanced at the large bird- Whirlwind, the stomper had called it?- who was pointing at him with one of its claws. Then it made several _quick_ noises.

"Uuummmmm," the stomper muttered, shrugging cluelessly.

The bird then pointed her claw at the stomper and made a long, _slow_, drawn out noise. 'Is it comparing how fast we talk?' the Boggan leader wondered, cocking his head in puzzlement.

"Oohhhhhh," the stomper exclaimed after a long moment, nodding her head and gesturing to Mandrake, "Iiitt taallkss rreeallllyy quuiicklllyy?" The bird made an exaggerated nodding motion, then pointed at the girl with one talon and made the slow noise again.

"Aaaaannd III ssoounnd rreeallllyy sslloooww?" the stomper asked.

'It took you that long to figure it out?' Mandrake thought in irritation, 'It's amazing these creatures haven't all died from their stupidity by now!'

"Sso iff II taalk reallly ffast I'lll sounnd normmal too himm?" the stomper spoke more quickly, but still sounded a little slow to Mandrake. He scoffed at its attempt, but noticed with annoyance that the bird was bobbing its head to say 'yes.'

"Coould yyou taalk reallly sllow soo II'll underrstannd yoou?" the stomper asked, looking at him eagerly. The leader of the Boggans sneered and crossed his arms. Why would he _ever_ want to speak with this _any_ stomper, particularly this one?

The stomper had a deadpan expression on its huge face and scolded, "Tthhaaat'ss nnnoot vverrryy nniice yyoou knnoww."

"And you think I care, why?" Mandrake mocked with a sneer in his voice, spreading his arms apart as if inviting an answer.

The stomper looked both pleases and faintly annoyed, and she told him, still trying to speak quickly, "II cann't unnderrstannd whaat yyou'rre sayying. Yoou havve too taalk slowwer!"

Mandrake shrugged and rolled his eyes, re-crossing his arms. If this stomper thought he was going to cooperate, it was even dumber than he'd at first thought!

The stomper sighed, speech going back to its normal, slow speed, "Ookaayy, fiinne. Yyoou caann juusst sstaayy iinnn tthherrre. II'mm gooiing too ggoo baacck too waatchhiing mmyyy Enn-see-ahy-ess Dee-vee-dee." She perked up slightly as she added, "Iit'ss onne ooff tthhe eppiisoodess wwiith AArri iinn iit."

Mandrake had no idea what any of this meant, but assumed it was simply more idiotic stomper nonsense.

Whirlwind shook her head and ruffled her feathers, looking a bit unhappy as the stomper walked slowly away, footsteps booming faintly. "What?" Mandrake asked the bird without thinking.

The bird cocked her head at him, then gestured at a flat, rectangular black object some distance away, which the stomper was walking towards, "Hmaaahhnnyy yyyhoowwhtd nho-eeehssisss, nhohhht ehhsfpehhck't." (Many loud noises, not expect.) (**She doesn't like the sudden noises, like gunshots or explosions, because they startle her.**)

Mandrake was surprised at the faintly recognizable words. He hadn't known large birds could even fully _understand_ speech. He replied, "Hm, you actually a_re_ speaking, aren't you? I'd thought those were simply noises earlier!" He'd added that last part, true though it was, as a bit of an insult.

The bird narrowed her eyes and hissed, "Ssshfpeeehkheeeng _hhhhaaahrtd_," (Speaking _hard_.)

"No, it's probably only for more intelligent creatures, heh?" Mandrake taunted, and the bird hissed again, snapping her sharp beak near the accursed glass thing that the Boggan leader was trapped inside.

"Hheey!" the stomper rebuked the bird, "Nnoo brrreeaakiing tthhaat jjaarr, Wwhirrrllwiinnd." The feathery creature gave a small hiss and hopped away, fluttering down to perch on the splintered remains of that tall, thin wooden thing it'd sat on earlier.

Mandrake sighed and looked around. It looked like he might be stuck here for a while.

_***Meanwhile...! With the Leafmen...!***_

"Sir!" one of the soldiers called out, having just returned from patrol. She dismounted from her bird and ran towards the orange-haired Leafman, Finn, and asked, "What happened to that enormous knob on the tree? It's gone!"

"Yes, I'd noticed," Finn told the soldier, "Some others saw several large predatory birds clawing at it earlier, before sunset. They said the birds managed to pull the entire thing right off the tree!"

"Wait, _what's_ going on?" asked another Leafman curiously- it was Nod.

"That giant knob on the tree is gone!" reported the Leafwoman soldier, looking worried.

"Oh no," Nod whispered, and his eyes widened, horrified as he saw it for himself. Those who'd seen Mandrake imprisoned in it- and there were only a few of them who'd seen it- had assumed that Mandrake would never escape.

And besides, they'd all been a bit distracted with celebrating the new queen, re-growing parts of the forest, and rebuilding. As a result, they hadn't worried about telling everyone immediately.

Finn, the orange-haired Leafman, tilted his head in confusion and asked, "Why? What's wrong?"

Nod turned to look at his fellow Leafman in growing horror, "_Mandrake_ was in it! So if it's gone, that means he's been freed!"

Though a proud Leafman soldier, Nod was still young, and still sometimes needed to ask for his mentor's help. This was one of those times. So he went running off to tell Ronin, yelling the older Leafman's name all the way. "Ronin! Ronin! RONIN!"

It would've been amusing had the situation not been so serious.

_***Back at the house...!***_

The stomper was laying on a huge soft-looking thing that looked like a stretched-out chair. She was watching the big flat rectangular object, which glowed with moving shapes and blared out the same, slow speech of stompers, and other noises.

Then the girl sat up straighter and fiddled with a device in her hand, grinning. Suddenly, the noise and motion in the rectangular thing sped up.

Well that was interesting! Mandrake could hear the words at a slightly more normal speed, instead of waiting what-felt-like-several-seconds for a single word to finish.

The stomper started laughing, "Tthhe chaarracterrs ssoounnd ssoo ffunnnnyy aallll sspedd uupp!" Then she sat bolt upright and whirled around to grin at the Boggan leader, still stuck in the 'jar.'

"HhaaHHAA!" the girl declared in triumph, "II haavve aann iideeaa!"

"Hmf, and I wonder how often t_hat_ happens," Mandrake scoffed, taking every possible opportunity he could to insult the stomper.

The bird poked on the clear walls of the 'jar' rapidly, causing it to make a loud tapping noise as the stomper hurried away to another room.

Mandrake cringed and covered up his ears. The bird stopped tapping and cocked her head.

"What?" Mandrake snapped at her, and the bird put one wing to the side of her head, where her own ears were hidden under feathers. Then she pointed with her wing at the Boggan leader.

Translation: Where on earth are your ears?

Mandrake found the unspoken question to be positively hilarious, and had to hold back a laugh.

It'd been a while since he'd really laughed (evil cackles/chuckles don't count), mostly because he didn't want to look silly. ((Thinks the guy carrying around a twig and wearing a dead bat on his head.))

**What _does_** **he look like without the bat-cloak? Personally, I'd imagine his ears being kind of big-ish and pointy like a mutant elf. Hehehe.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi, nice reader-people!**

**To Brucrew17: Yeah, pointy ears are cool, 'specially on animal-ish characters or villains. Good idea, and I'll see what I can do, though the Leafmen aren't the main characters here- Mandrake is.**

**To sesshomaroismine99: Ehh, yelling and glaring is all I could come up with. But thank you very much.**

**To Curly Curiosity: Oh I'm so glad you like it! I wasn't sure how birds of prey would sound, so I did the best I could, trying to make the raptors sound precise and polite. Thank you very much, and those are beautiful descriptions you mentioned of them.**

The stomper returned to the room carrying a smaller rectangular object in its hand. How many rectangular objects did these creatures have?!

The girl unfolded the silvery object in half, and the side of the object facing her glowed. The girl poked at the lower half of the weird object with a thin black twig, and noises came out of the thing.

What was it doing? It was frustrating, having no idea what was going on. Mandrake _hated_ having absolutely no control over the situation he was in.

The noises quieted from the object, and the human poked it with the thin black twig again a couple more times, then placed the thing next to the jar that Mandrake was trapped inside.

"Coould yyou pllease sayy sommething?" the stomper asked him, speaking quickly.

While he _slightly_ appreciated the almost-normal speed the stomper was striving to obtain in her speaking, Mandrake was still not going to do anything she asked. He was the proud leader of a vast army of Boggans! He didn't take orders from some dumb stomper female!

So, Mandrake crossed his arms stubbornly again and slowly leaned to the side, one eyebrow raised in cynicism andscorn. The entire pose spoke for itself: 'You really think I'm going to do what you say?'

"Ohh c'mmon!" the stomper exclaimed, impatient, "Wwhyy nnott?"

Actually, he couldn't think of any good reason- other than pride and showing his complete lack of respect for the stomper.

Mandrake shrugged lazily, hoping it'd annoy the stomper female. It did, and the stomper threw her arms in the air and made a noise of frustration. Then she abruptly stopped and turned her head to look at him again. There was a sneaky look on her face, which made the Boggan leader uneasy. What was this girl planning?

The stomper poked the weird rectangular object again. Then she reached out quickly, (well, quickly for a stomper), and yanked up the jar, rapidly wiggling it side to side for a second.

"Whaa, whoa, ow!" Mandrake yelped, bonking into the sides of his prison before it finally came to a halt. He struggled to his feet and leaned against the side, demanding furiously, "_And **just** what was **that** for?!_"

The stomper winced slightly, "Ssorrrryy. Diidnn't mmeeann too huurrt yyoou." The Boggan leader snarled at her. The girl shrugged apologetically, then placed the jar back down and picked up the rectangle-object, poking it again.

Then Mandrake's own words started coming from the device, slowed down, "_'Wwhaaa, wwhoa, oww! Annd jusst what was thaat ffor?!'_"

The Boggan leader's eyes widened in surprise. Oh. So _that's_ what the weird object did. ...He didn't like how his voice sounded all slowed down like that. It sounded stupid.

The stomper tilted her head to one side, then replayed it again, putting her ear closer to the object. Mandrake scowled. He wanted to yell 'Alright, enough already!' at the dumb stomper, but didn't want her to win again in hearing what he said.

Granted, it wasn't actually a big deal, but he didn't want to do anything the stomper wanted him to. He was just stubborn like that.

After yet another try, listening to the weird object, the stomper finally seemed satisfied. Mandrake couldn't believe it'd taken the huge creature _that long_ to understand a simple phrase, and slowed-down, too!

"Aahh, sorrry againn," the girl apologized quickly, once she understood the slowed-down words, "But II couldnn't think of anny otherr wayy too get yyou to sayy annything."

Mandrake still scowled at her, narrowing his eyes in a glare.

"II _said_ I waas sorryy," the girl snapped, crossing her own arms in annoyance, then dropping them and looking worried, "Ohh wait, II diidn't hurrt you, diid I?!"

About to arrogantly scoff 'No,' Mandrake paused, thinking. He smirked. Maybe some sympathy from this stomper could be useful... So he nodded.

"Wwhere?!" the girl asked in alarm. Where? Oh. Ummm... He pointed to his side and pretended to hold it in pain. The bird, still perched on the wooden thing, narrowed its eyes and cocked its head, obviously suspicious.

"Heere, lemmee seee," the girl asked quickly, putting her face close to the jar. The leader of the Boggans recoiled; this huge stomper girl's giant, concerned-looking face right up in front of him was **very** disconcerting.

"Ehrr..." he mumbled, uncomfortable. The stomper cocked her head, "Wwhaat?"

Determined to keep up the charade, Mandrake scrunched up his face and forced himself to edge closer to the stomper. Unfortunately, he stepped on his left foot wrong, and it bent to one side with a sharp flash of pain, making him fall over.

Mandrake let out a small groan at the pain in his limb, and growled in frustration, hitting his fist against the clear floor of his accursed prison. The stomper winced and looked sorry for him, which was both helpful- he could work with this, and humiliating- the great leader of the Boggans neither wanted nor needed anyone's pity.

"Wwhaat haappenned too yyour lleg?" the stomper girl asked, "Iis it brokenn?"

The bird, (Whirlwind, if he remembered correctly, which he always did), gave a small screech, then grasped a long piece of the tall, thin wooden thing it'd been sitting on. The bird leaned it up so that it was vertical, then let go and pretended to fall to the ground.

The avian then got up and limped over to the table, dragging one leg behind her. She then stopped, stood up normally again, and pointed at Mandrake. Wow, this creature was good at explanations!

Even the stomper seemed to understand what Whirlwind was 'saying,' and guessed, "Oohhh, wwhenn tthhe pperrch brrokke, hheee ffelll aannd hhurrt hiiiss llegg?" The bird bobbed her head.

"Aahh," the girl stated, nodding. She turned her head to look back at Mandrake and peered at his injured limb. It was faintly swollen, and had a dark blue-ish tinge.

The girl told him, "Iit mmiight bee sprraainned oorr sommethiing. Iit'lll prrobaablly heeall onn iit'ss ownn, aafterr aa whiille."

'How much of 'a while'?' the Boggan leader wondered impatiently. He'd been injured plenty of times before, unsurprising since he was the head of an army in a war. But having an injury was an annoyance and liability, which would make his escape much more difficult.

And if he had to wait for it to heal, it might take a long time before he'd even be **able** to escape.

"Hhey," the stomper abruptly asked, "Doo yyou waannt somme ffoood?"

"You don't even _know_ what I eat," Mandrake scoffed, just as the stomper asked, "Oohhh wwaait. Wwhaat _doo_ yyou eeat?" Hm, maybe not such a stupid creature after all.

Mandrake looked around the room and shrugged. He didn't see anything edible. Though, he _had_ been working on eating his way out of that awful tree-knob before the crazy hawks got him out. It'd been very hard and had tasted foul, but was the only thing he'd eaten in who-knows-how-long-he'd-been-stuck inside that tree.

"Hhmmmm," the girl murmured, "Yyoou shoould prrobaablly staayy heerre. Annyy kiinnd ooff prreddaatorr ooutsiide coouldd bee reeallly daanggerrous, esspeccialllyy siinnce yyoou'rre hhurrt."

Mandrake shook his head and pointed imperiously to the window. He could easily handle anything that crossed his path! Besides, all he'd have to do was call up a bat and get back to Wrathwood, and everything would be fine again.

Well, not everything... His son was still dead... And the chance of stealing that royal pod had been ruined as well...

But Mandrake was never one to give up. Whoever the new queen was, Madrake figured, they'd be inexperienced, meaning that the Leafmen would be vulnerable.

Their defenses wouldn't be as good as usual, maybe he could sneak in and get rid of the new queen, or he could go to Wrathwood and get his forces back together to get rid of the queen, and the Leafmen would have nowhere to turn.

he could probably even cause a substantial amount of damage to the forest probably even before getting to Wrathwood, now if he could only find the materials and ingredients to make the special rot-ooze, there was probably some around here someplace, now if he could just...

A small screech interrupted Mandrake's thoughts, and he turned to see the bird looking at him, along with the stomper. The girl asked, "Yyoou okaayy? Yyoou diidnn't moovve foorr aa whholle thrreee secconnds!"

"Huh?" he asked, "Oh." The girl cocked her head and held the weird rectangle-object from earlier near the jar and raised her eyebrows questioningly.

Mandrake sighed and rolled his eyes. If he was going to get out of here, he'd probably have to talk to this creature sooner or later. So he shrugged and grudgingly nodded. He'd cooperate... for now.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey all you awesome readers! (I'm watching "EPIC" yet again as I type this. This is, what? The eleventh time watching it on DVD? I forget.)**

**To Brucrew17: Yippee! I was really worried that I might be making him seem out of character. Thank you so very much! Oh, the bolded and italicized words are just ones that are said or thought louder or with more emphasis, or _to_ emphasize something.**

**To sesshomaruismine99: Ahh, heh heh. Sorry, I keep being mean to him. Yeah, Mandrake has to endure a bit more before I let him have some super-happy chapters. *shrugs apologetically***

**...Oh goodie. My father is now comparing Leafmen to the Empire and Boggans to the Rebel Fleet in Star Wars. WHYYY does he do this to meee? Tara is NOT the Emperor and Mandrake is NOT a Jedi, ok Dad?! O_O**

The stomper gave a huge smile, tapped at the weird object, and then gestured to Mandrake. He spoke clearly and a little more slowly, so it wouldn't take so long for the stomper to understand this time.

"I'll be _perfectly_, _fine_," he informed the stomper, trying to keep most of the sneer out of his voice, "Now I would appreciate it if you'd remove this _prison_ from me so I can return home."

Almost before he'd finished speaking, the bird screeched and hissed, flapping her wings in agitation. "Nnnho," (No) the bird hissed, glaring at Mandrake, "Hhherrrhhtsss ffhohrrihsssst!" (Hurts forest)

"Wwhhooaa!" the stomper exclaimed, trying to soothe the creature, "Eeeeaassyyy, giirrrlll, eeeeeeaaassyy nnooww, caaallmm doowwnnn, iiit'sss oookkaaayyyy..."

Whirlwind hissed again and swiped her talons in the direction of the jar containing Mandrake. It was only emphasis of her displeasure though; the razor-sharp claws didn't even come close to hitting it.

Then the bird fluttered to the window and spread her wings, blocking it and hissing yet again. The stomper girl continued to try to soothe Whirlwind, who eventually subsided into simply glaring at Mandrake. He feigned innocence, pretending to have no i_dea_ why the homicidal bird-creature could _possibly_ be angry.

Of course he knew exactly why though- any animal smart enough to speak and plan, was smart enough to know of the leader of the Boggans and know how very dangerous he was to their home.

Too bad the stomper didn't know that.

Finally, said-stomper obviously didn't suspect a thing, and went back to the rectangular object and tapped it again, listening carefully to the slowed-down words.

"Wwelll, ookaayy, II _guesss_ II shoould lett yyoou oouut..." the girl mused, reaching for the jar. Whirlwind screeched again and flapped over in a flurry of talons and cream-and-gray-and-black feathers. She landed atop the jar and gave a long hiss of warning.

"Wwhiirrllwwiiinnd, c'mmmoonnn," the stomper scolded, "Wwhaat'ss tthhe mmaatttterr wwiith yyoouu? Heee iisnn't aa bbuug ffoorr mmeee too sstuddyy, aannd hee jusst wwaanntss too bee llett oout."

The bird screeched again and shook her head violently, snapping her beak open and closed, dark eyes blazing. Then she fluttered off of the jar and flapped her way out a doorway, screeching for the stomper to follow.

The girl sighed, got up, and apologized to Mandrake, "Ssorrryy, II doonn't knnoww _wwhaat's_ gooiing onn wiith hherr. II'lll bee rright baacck." Oh great.

*_With the Leafmen_*

"Sir," called a Leafwoman to Ronin, steering her hummingbird to fly alongside his, "We've been unable to locate any of the birds matching the descriptions. Is it possible they might have returned to their nests by now?"

Ronin sighed, looking out at the night sky. It was far past the time that daytime predators would be out, and too dark to continue searching anyway. The moon was waning and thin patches of clouds were slowly sliding across the stars.

The head of the Leafmen nodded in response to his soldier's question, hating the taste of defeat, however temporary it may be. "We'd best be getting back to Moonhaven," he told his squadron, "Spread the word, and we'll all try again tomorrow. Mandrake can **not** be allowed a second chance to destroy the forest!"

The Leafmen all nodded, and swung their hummingbirds around to tell the others and then return home.

On the way back to Moonhaven, Nod flew up above and to the side of Ronin, the younger Leafman's larger bird keeping her wings out of the hummingbird's way. Ronin glanced up at him, hoping for a second that Nod would have some good news.

"Hey!" Nod called, "You think I should tell MK? She and her dad should be on the lookout."

Ronin shook his head with a faint sigh, "No, they'll be fine. The last place Mandrake would be is near a stomper's home."

*_Back at the House_*

Mandrake scowled as the stomper left the room. Was he _never_ going to get the chance to escape?!

A few seconds later, he heard the stomper asking in confusion, "Wwhiiirrrllwiiinnd, wwhaaat dooo yyoou wwaannt wwiith tthhe rreefrrigerraator?" There was an impatient screech, and after that came the noise of something large opening.

A ripping sound, and then the bird flapped back into the room carrying something flat and light green in her beak. It looked like an oddly shaped, wrinkly leaf. The stomper girl followed, her footsteps booming slowly and making the room shake ever so slightly.

Then Whirlwind landed next to the jar and waited for the girl to reach them. This close up, the thing she was holding definitely looked like some kind of leaf. But why would she bring... Oh.

"Ookaayy, II'mm heerre," the stomper sighed in exasperation, "Nnoww wwhaat iiss iit? Aand wwhaat dooess a caabbbagge lleeaff hhavve too doo wwiith aannyythiing?"

The bird bobbed her head and placed the bright green leaf on top of the jar. Madrake gritted his teeth as he realized what the bird was trying to do: show the stomper why she was so against letting Mandrake go free- by demonstrating the danger he posed.

Thankfully for him, the leaf only dulled a little bit, not enough for the huge stomper to notice. The bird- who c_ould_ see the beginning of decay, cocked her head, waiting for a reaction from the girl, but there was nothing. Mandrake smirked at the creature's failed attempt to warn the stomper.

Whirlwind hissed and tore off a strip of the green leaf, then another strip, so there was just the thin stem with some ragged green pieces left on it. Then she showed it to the stomper, who sighed and leaned in close to inspect it. And Whirlwind poked the thin piece into the jar through one of the holes in the top.

Mandrake growled and tried to duck away, but he could already see the healthy green stem turning brown, and then gray, shriveling, crumpling into dust as it got near him.

The stomper gasped and pulled back in shock. Whirlwind pulled what was left of the leaf's stem out of the jar and placed it on the table. It kept crumpling until there was barely anything left, just a thin little shape of dust and a shriveled piece of the stem, brownish gray and withered.

Though having the stomper know what he was capable of would certainly not be very good for convincing her to let him go, the sight still made Mandrake smirk in grim pleasure. He didn't even have to _touch_ something for it to rot- his mere presence was powerful enough!

"Wwwwwhhaaaaat...?" the girl whispered, staring in horror and shock at the withered remains of the leaf, "Hhhhhooww... Wwwhhaat diiid yyoou...?"

The bird gave a low, grim screech, then gestured with her head towards the forest and hissed.

"Oooohhhhhhhhh," the girl stated in realization, her eyes wide, "Iiis tthhaat wwhyy yyoou brrouught hhiimm iinn heerre?" The bird nodded emphatically and hissed at Mandrake again, who glared back at her.

"Yyoou rreeally mmaake plaantns diie wwhenn yyoou'rre neearr themm?" the stomper asked the leader of the Boggans, still astonished.

Well, it wasn't as though Mandrake could exactly **deny** it, thanks to that stupid bird. So he shrugged and did his best to look ever-so sad about it.

"Aaaaawwww," the girl whimpered in pity, "Poooorr yyoou!"

Mandrake muffled a laugh and continued to look sad.

"Yyoou coouldd sttaayy heerre wwherre nnothiing wwilll deccayy," the girl added, sounding encouraging and hopeful now.

The Boggan leader's laugh immediately died.

The bird, on the other hand, seemed positively thrilled, hopping from foot to foot in joy and trilling ecstatically. ...Stupid bird.

Mandrake scowled at it and shook his head rapidly. No, no, NO, he was NOT going to be STAYing here!

"Wwelll ookaayy, wwhyy nnot?" the stomper asked, concerned. Ok, maybe the situation wasn't hopeless after all.

Mandrake made a pitiable face and pawed at the inside of the jar like a cute little animal. Stompers were weak in the face of this sort of thing, right?

The girl's expression immediately softened into pity and sympathy, and she quickly reassured him, "Ohh, nno nno, ddonn't wworrryy! II'lll lett yyoou oout, ooff coourrse!"

Now it was Mandrake's turn to cheer and the annoying bird's turn to scowl.

**Yaayy I squeezed in a bit about the Leafmen!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey you nice reviewing people!**

**To Brucrew17: Thank you! I'm really glad you liked it. Ehhh, wellll, actually, I'm not trying to make her seem unintelligent, but it's just that Mandrake sees all Stompers as being stupid. Thank you very much! That is good advice to Maxine, and Relay agrees with you.**

**To Brainyxbat: Awwww, that sounds adorable! I think I probably would too, except I think that he would be reeeaaally uncomfortable and would bite me.**

**To  Brianna . mason. 790: Thank you very much! I'm so glad that you like it!**

**Ok, now on to the chapter!**

Whirlwind hissed and snapped her beak at Mandrake viciously, trying frantically to persuade the stomper not to free the leader of the Boggans.

"Oohh coomme **oonn**, Wwhirrllwwinnd," the girl scolded, irritated, "II caann't unnderrstaannd wwhhyy yyoou'rre soo aagaainnst tthhe pooorr lliittlle guuyy!" ''Poor little guy'?' Mandrake thought, trying not to wrinkle his nose in distaste, 'Bleah!'

"Iinn faact," the stomper announced, "II aamm gooiing too llet hhiimm oouut rriight _nnoww_!" Mandrake jumped up and down in glee, and not all of it was just acting. _Finally_ he would be getting _out_ of here, and back to Wrathwood! Back to where **he** was ruler, where **he** was in control!

Whirlwind shrieked and hissed, shaking her head. The stomper, obviously tired with the avian creature's theatrics, huffed and left the room. Then a moment later, she came back with a small brown cloth of some kind.

"Oookkaaayyy, Wwwhhiirrrlllwwiinnd," the girl told the bird firmly as she walked closer, "Iiiff yyoouu caaann't beeehhaaavve, III'mm gooiing too haaavve too ppuut yyoouurr hhooood oonn yyoouu."

Whirlwind's feathers stood up and she hissed, not scared, but simply angry that the stomper didn't understand. Mandrake smirked smugly at her, and the bird turned to hiss at him, glowering.

"You'll never manage to stop me," he gloated in a smug whisper, and Whirlwind leapt at the jar, screeching in rage. But before she could reach it, and Mandrake half-feared that she would, the stomper grabbed the bird, tucked its wings in against its side, and slipped on that round cloth over the bird's dark head.

Whirlwind thrashed for a moment more, hissing and shrieking hysterically. It looked exhausting, and she eventually subsided- after what must have been at least two minutes.

Then she sat there in the stomper's arms, turning her head from side to side and hissing darkly, wings hunched forward and talons flexing open and closed, open and closed, extending and coiling.

She hissed again, a threat, "Ehhhhhhsssssssckhhaaaaayyyhpf, aaahhhhhnnnnt Ahhhhhhyyyy khiiiiillllh hhhyyyyooooouuuh." (Escape, and I kill you)

"And I'll rot the feathers right off your wings," Mandrake retorted nastily, grinning.

He'd spoken just loudly enough that Whirlwind could hear him, but not the stomper.

So, the stomper couldn't find any reason for why the bird started shrieking viciously and fighting all over again.

Mandrake smirked to himself as the girl took Whirlwind out of the room. A door opened, and he could still hear the bird's screeching. Then there was a pause, and the door closed, muffling the enraged noise. Finally, the girl came back into the room, where Mandrake was STILL trapped inside of the abhorrent jar.

The furry brown and black feline he'd seen earlier had gotten up from where it was curled up in a corner, and had wandered out of the room. Now it came back, probably glad to be away from the noisy Whirlwind.

"Ookayy, II'm sorrryy aabout thaat," the girl told Mandrake, speaking quickly for his benefit, "II'mm gooiing too llet yyoou oout nnoww, ookaaayyy?"

In the other room, the bird shrieked in rage, and there were scratching noises. The girl winced- anything in that room would be covered in gouges when this was all over.

The Boggan leader grinned eagerly in response to her question and nodded. The girl still looked uncertain and added, "Wwhirrlwiind uusuallly haas aa ggoood rreeasonn fforr wwhaat shee doess. Soo..." –Mandrake's hopeful expression fell- "Llet'ss trryy too prroove hherr wrroong, ookaay?"

He nodded vigorously. Come on come on come on! He had a forest to ruin!

The stomper sighed slowly, and slowwlly turned the lid of the jar, then sllowwlly lifted it off.

...Mandrake quietly hopped up to the top of the jar, cautiously sticking his head out. ...He then steadily and carefully climbed down, grasping his stick. ...He looked around and walked slowly away from the stomper. ..._And **then **he jumped for the window!_

"HHEEYY!" the girl yelled, startled, "Wwaaiit!" She reached for him, but Mandrake ignored her, landing on the floor and jumping up again onto a smaller table next to the window. And again, farther. Whirlwind shrieked in helpless rage in the other room.

Almost there, almost there, made it! There was some thick netting or mesh covering it, but Mandrake knew he would have no problem tearing it off.

The leader of the Boggans could topple an entire full-grown _tree_! A bunch of thin, pathetic stomper-invented _netting_ wasn't going to stop him!

As he reached for it, the brown-and-black furry thing leaped up onto the table, swiping Mandrake away with its paws. He let out an exclamation of surprise and skidded on the glass center of the table. (Running on a smooth surface was very weird- all the wood and most other surfaces in the forest and Wrathwood had been rough and textured.)

Mandrake tried to dart around the large creature, but it batted at him with its paw, and as he dodged away from it, he slipped off the table again. The furry animal jumped down and leapt at him.

It just barely missed as Mandrake scrambled away, about to jump for the window again. But as he did so, the big furry thing leaped up and grabbed him out of the air, pinning him down with its front paws.

Mandrake's breath was knocked out of him and he gasped in much-needed air for a second. The creature sniffed at him, green eyes wide and curious. It only had one ear, Mandrake noted, and the other looked like it'd been bitten off.

Mandrake tried to push the heavy creature off, but only succeeded in shifting the animal's paws up a little. If Mandrake had been at full strength, he knew he probably could have done more. But instead, he was tired, and sore, and still hadn't eaten any actual food in days!

"Goooodd booyy, Tuummmbllewweeed!" the stomper girl praised the brown-and-black animal, stroking its back and behind its ear and torn ear-nub. The creature made a pleased thrumming noise, "Rrrrrrrrrr," and closed its eyes.

Mandrake tried to free himself then, but the animal pressed down with its paws harder, and he had difficulty breathing.

The stomper girl looked at him and sighed, looking so disappointed and sad. Mandrake sneered at her, still struggling to escape.

The girl sighed dejectedly again, shaking her head. Then she reached out her hand behind Mandrake's head and pinched the back of his bat-cloak between two fingers. Mandrake's arms were still pinned by the furry animal, so he couldn't reach back to hit or claw at the stomper's hand.

The girl gently nudged the brown-and-black animal away, and picked up the Boggan leader by his cloak. He swung his lower half forward to push off from the girl's hand with his feet, but the girl just yanked it up, unbalancing him.

She looked a little disconcerted by the fact that she was holding part of a dead bat, but shrugged to herself and placed him in the jar again, holding the lid close, right over her fingers.

The instant the stomper let go and yanked her hand away, Mandrake lunged for the opening, but the cover was already there and he only succeeded in smacking one of the girl's fingers with his hand and whacking his head. Oowww.

He fell back to the floor of his prison holding his head, which stung. But at least it'd been a little protected by his furry bat-head-hood. The ears of it were a little bent, so he straightened them, trying to retain at least _some_ of his dignity.

And pointedly ignoring the stomper who watched him with sad eyes.

**This is why Maxine lives in the forest with her pets/friends, away from most other humans. Animals don't lie. Mandrake however, does, and this has made the girl feel hurt that he has betrayed her trust.**


	9. Chapter 9

**HIII! Sorry for not updating sooner, I've been trying to update relatively quickly but it's haaarrd. Oh, also, fantastic news! At the Annual Meeting (of Jehovah's Witnesses, like myself), we received a _brand new revised addition of the BIBLE!_ To some, I understand, that may not seem like much, but it's a much easier version of God's Word to understand, and helps us know Jehovah God even better! It's part of history!**

**To Brucrew17: Um, thank you for agreeing, but I don't know exactly which thing it is that you agree with. Sorry. *shrugs***

**To Brainyxbat: About how Mandrake would react to you or me? Thanks, and me too. Aww, cute! (Hmm, I wonder if I should have him getting tickled here... Nah, I don't think I'd be able to write it very well.)**

**Ok, now the chapter! Ooh, this time it's from the human's point of view!**

"My name is Maxine by the way," the girl murmured after a minute or two, still watching the small person she'd trapped inside of a jar. He didn't respond, just kept fiddling with his disturbing cape.

"I'm not going to hurt you, you know," Maxine told him, in case that was why he was so unfriendly. Still nothing.

"Whirlwind must've had a really good reason for wanting to keep you stuck here," she mused, adding jokingly, "in this horrible place." Still nothing.

"Whirlwind is the name of the female Peregrine falcon, by the way," she told the small person, who was still picking at his cape, "And the cat's name is Tumbleweed." The small person scoffed something really quick, but Maxine couldn't understand what it was.

"Uh, sorry, could you repeat that, please?" the girl asked, trying to speak as quickly as possible. She flipped open her Nintendo again, which had the 'Nintendogs' game on it, with the White Record, which could slow down and speed up whatever she recorded for a couple seconds. (**Just as explanation, that's what she'd been using to hear Mandrake's speaking slowed down.**)

The small person gave her a look of distaste and annoyance, and shook his head as if it was obvious that he was not planning on doing anything she said, and that she was beneath him. Arrogant little pipsqueak.

Maxine's mouth twitched in a scowl, but she took a breath to calm herself a bit. The small person had a right to be unhappy, Maxine understood- being trapped inside of a jar obviously wasn't very fun.

She sighed softly to herself and looked out the window at the sky. The moon was coming up, and was a bit more than half-full. It was slowly shrinking, waning away night by night.

The moon was still bright though, and outlined the beautiful trees and grass in silver light.

"It's beautiful outside," Maxine sighed quietly, "No wonder you want to get out of here." She picked up the jar and moved it as smoothly as she could over to the window.

She set the object, and its occupant, down right next to the window, so the fresh air and lovely sights would be more easily accessible.

The little person, who'd tensed up when she picked up the jar, turned his head to glance outside. Then he turned to face the window, arms crossed loosely. He looked as if he were gazing out over a kingdom.

"Think you could maybe tell me your name?" Maxine asked, trying once again to be friendly. The little person scoffed, and even though it was a tiny little noise, Maxine could hear the contempt in it.

"Okay," the girl sighed, "Maybe tomorrow. I'm going to bed."

First though, she had to let Whirlwind out of her bedroom. When the girl entered, though, she grimaced. There were long claw-marks on the girl's bed-post and ripped sheets. Whirlwind had fallen asleep, and she woke up immediately as Maxine removed the hood from her head.

"You probably heard what went on in there, huh?" the girl asked, and Whirlwind bobbed her head.

The girl sighed, "Well, you were right. The little guy made a break for it the moment he was out. Well, you know, not the exact, instant, moment, he walked around for a bit, and then he tried to get out. Tumbleweed stopped him. He's a smart cat. Not the little guy in the jar, I meant Tumbleweed."

Whirlwind nodded her head and fluttered her wings. Maxine smiled softly and held out her arm. The falcon hopped on, locking her talons firmly around the girl's wrist and arm, and being careful as always not to cause any injury.

"Thanks, girl," Maxine told her, "And I'm sorry I got so mad at you earlier. I should have listened to you." The bird made a very long, exaggerated nodding gesture, moving her head so far up and down that she almost lost her balance.

Maxine chuckled sadly, "Yeah. Like I said, sorry." She carried Whirlwind into the living room, looked at the ruined perch that she herself had made from a branch, and sighed.

Then she put the falcon on her couch, and went outside. She came back less than a minute later with a long, thin branch. The girl placed one end on the table, and one on the couch. Whirlwind happily flapped over and perched on it, bobbing her head in approval.

Maxine let out a small laugh, then asked Whirlwind, "You hungry?" The falcon tilted her head to the side, a pose she'd learned from Maxine, and then bobbed her black-feathered head.

"Ok," Maxine told her, yawning, "I'll get you something. Do you want soommme... ham?" Whirlwind shook her head. "Chicken?" The falcon lifted her head, then bobbed it quickly, and Maxine laughed.

"Ok then, chicken you shall have!" Maxine went over to the fridge and paused, then looked back into the living room and called, "D'you want any bones in it?"

Whirlwind bobbed her head, so Maxine nodded and cut off a piece of a leg from the store-bought chicken, which was already over half-eaten... by Whirlwind.

Maxine was a vegetarian, but she always bought meat for her falcon and cat. The girl put the chunk of cold meat and bone on a plate and stuck it in the microwave for a little less than a minute. Then she opened it up, and brought the warmed-up food over to Relay.

She placed it on the table, then glanced at the small person who was still in the jar. He was watching. Maxine almost thought she saw him licking his lips.

"Would you like some?" Maxine asked, cocking her head and holding out a piece. The small person scrunched up his face and stepped back.

"Ok, fine," the girl told him, shrugging, and gave the piece to Whirlwind, who swallowed it whole. Maxine slowly stroked the feathers along Whirlwind's back, then went to re-fill Whirlwind's water bowl and Tumbleweed's food and water bowls.

Constantly giving her cat little treats, she added in some of the chicken and a piece of ham to the cat-food.

The brown-and-black feline bounded over, still fast and agile in his old-ish age, and munched up the piece of chicken. Then he turned his head up to stare at Maxine.

A few seconds passed. Still staring. "Meoow!"

"Ok, ok," the girl half-sighed, half-laughed, "Since you were _ever_ so helpful today, you can have some bologna." Bologna was Tumbleweed's favorite. The cat rubbed against her leg and purred loudly as Maxine got the slice of meat out of her fridge and plopped it into his bowl.

And then Maxine went to bed. This had been a long and weird evening.

The girl dearly hoped that tomorrow would be just as weird and exciting!


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello again! (And I'm again sorry fer' not updating sooner- I kept getting distracted and stuff.)**

**To Brucrew17: Well, I guess it could seem strange to want a day to be weird. But, that's the way that Maxine is. Her life isn't super exciting, so she welcomes any weird or crazy miniature adventure that comes her way. Don't worry, I'm not offended. (Thank you for being so polite!) Long reviews are just as good as short ones, if not better sometimes.**

**To Brainyxbat: Well, thank you very much. I appreciate your confidence, but I've been trying to make the writing really fit how the movie is, and I don't know how to incorporate Mandrake-tickling into it very well. Your Fanfic is _awesome_ with the tickling though!**

Maxine stretched, feeling a warm, soft, furry thing curled up next to her. Tumbleweed. The girl smiled softly, reaching one hand over to gently rub behind his ear and ear-nub. The girl remembered the excitement of yesterday, with Whirlwind bringing home the troublesome little person-creature, and she grinned in excitement.

She resisted the urge to just leap out of bed and run to the living room, and instead slowly petted Tumbleweed's back. Then she slid off of her bed and pulled the cat inside of the warm covers that she had just left. The feline purred, and Maxine kissed the top of his head.

"Good boy," she whispered, then crept out the door, leaving it open for when Tumbleweed decided to come out. Then she darted over to the table, holding her breath in excitement.

Whirlwind looked up tiredly and bobbed her head to Maxine in greeting. The girl nodded back and put a finger to her mouth to signal quietness. Whirlwind looked like she'd barely slept, and the falcon nodded tiredly and went back to sleep. Maxine turned her attention to what was on the table.

The little person was still inside the jar, laying on his side. Maxine slowly eased herself down to crouch next to it for a better look. The tiny figure was breathing, which was of a great relief to Maxine; she didn't want him to die- that would've been sad.

Maxine thought about gently tapping one of her fingernails on the table to wake him up, then came up with a better idea. She snuck silently back out of the room, glad the floorboards didn't creak.

Then she walked back in, making enough noise and walking loudly enough to wake him up. She wanted to see how he'd react if he knew she was coming. The little person seemed to tense up, and went completely still as Maxine approached.

The girl cocked her head and turned the jar so she could see the itty bitty person's face. His eyes were open and staring blankly at the floor and he looked like he was holding his breath.

Maxine waited, but nothing happened. Then the girl suddenly burst out laughing as she figured out what he was trying to do, "You're playing dead? Hahaha haha! Very clever, little guy, very clever, hahahah."

She grinned and shook her head in amazement as she walked away. The girl glanced back to see the small person sitting up and looking incredibly frustrated. Maxine muffled a snicker, then opened up the front door and went outside to enjoy the morning. It was already rather bright outside, and she'd gotten up early- only a little after 5 AM!

'Well,' Maxine figured as she looked out over the shining grass covered in shimmering dew, 'It _was_ the Summer Solstice a few days ago. The days are long.'

She stayed outside for a few more minutes with her eyes closed, feeling the warm air, the cool and wet grass beneath her feet, and the strong wooden porch beneath the rest of her.

Even with her eyes closed, Maxine could see the bright glow of the morning sun. It was nice.

And she enjoyed it for about ten more seconds before there was a loud 'clunk,' and then an even louder, shattering 'crash,' from inside her house.

Almost before the noise ended, the girl was on her feet and racing inside in case either of her animals were hurt. Whirlwind, who'd flapped of her temporary perch, seemed angry and was screeching. Then the falcon swooped at the door, trying to hit it closed with her talons and wings.

Usually she'd be hovering in the air near the door and waiting to go outside for her morning flight, Maxine knew, even as she closed the door for the Peregrine. She spotted Tumbleweed standing in the entrance of room, his back arched in surprise and remaining ear pressed back.

He'd probably jumped out of bed, startled by the crashing noise, and had run to the doorway. Now Maxine, glad that her animals were safe, looked at the cause of the noise and panic. The glass jar was on the wood floor, shattered into several pieces.

Maxine didn't see the small person anywhere, and started worrying. As she bent down to look around the floor, she noticed something on some of points of the glass shards. It was wet, a very dark brownish red.

Blood? No, blood was a more vibrant red than this. Or maybe this was blood from the small person! Now the girl grew even more worried.

"Did you see where he went?" she asked Whirlwind, who settled back onto her branch-perch and guiltily shook her head. Maxine gently stroked the falcon and told her that it was ok, it wasn't her fault.

Then she called over Tumbleweed, who sometimes had the habit of acting like a dog (he even had a cat-door). Maxine held out a piece of the glass, asking him to find the scent. The feline sniffed it suspiciously, big green eyes narrowed.

"C'mon boy," Maxine encouraged, "C'mon, you can find him... You can do it..." Tumbleweed sniffed one more time and then put his nose to the ground, following an invisible trail. He stopped about two feet away, beneath the couch, and meowed definitively.

"Good boy, Tumbleweed, good job!" Maxine praised, "Later I'll let you have some more bologna." ... "Juuust as soon as I get this little guy out of here..." she added, reaching her arm underneath the couch. Her fingers touched something wet on the floor and she heard a faint rustling noise farther away.

Maxine pulled her hand out and looked at the tiny specks of dark, brown-red blood on her fingertips. They were starting to itch and sting.

She frowned in thought for a second, then whispered to Whirlwind as softly as she could, "I'm gonna to leave the room right now, ok? He might come out then." The falcon's eyes brightened and she bobbed her head excitedly.

"Alright, I gotta go wash my hand," the girl announced at normal volume, and walked away into the kitchen to do so, and quickly. A few seconds later, there was a 'mrow!,' a screech, and scuffling noises a-plenty. The girl dashed out of the room, hand still dripping with water.

The small person was clinging to the flap of the cat-door, and Whirlwind was trying to pull him off of it, accompanied by Tumbleweed, who batted at the small person with his paw.

Maxine quickly looked around for another jar, or a box, or something. Barely a second later though, the girl heard Whirlwind's screech of dismay and whirled around to look. The falcon's talons were empty except for a small scrap of thin, brown-gray leathery stuff, and the cat-flap swung open and closed.

... "Get 'iimmm!" Maxine announced, like an army officer yelling 'chaaarrge,' and she swung the door open. All three charged out, and it felt like an absurd, funny game for a moment.

But Whirlwind's deadly seriousness made it obvious that it was very important. After a couple seconds, Maxine spotted something moving on the tree closest to her house: a gray-ish bat-shaped thing.

"There!" she warned, and ran at it. The small person jumped up the tree, leaping up and up and up several times until Maxine couldn't see him between the leaves and branches.

Then some of the thin branches of leaves started shriveling and turning gray. It formed a faint path of decay, and as it spread to other nearby leaves, the girl's eyes widened. She now understood just why Whirlwind was so staunchly against letting the person go free.

If that little creature caused this much damage to the tree without even trying, just by accident, what would happen if it was ever on purpose?


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi again! A bit more excitement in this chapter here, and some injuries to deal with. Hope ya like it!**

**To Brucrew17: I'm so glad you're excited about the story! I was hoping his escape would be exciting to the readers, and I'm happy to have succeeded. Thank you very much, I'm really glad you liked it. Ooh, neat! That's awesome, and I think you'll do a great job!**

**To Brainyxbat: Sorry. *shrugs apologetically* Oh, yer' welcome! Your FanFic was really great!**

Relay screeched in relief as her perch-human pointed out where the small creature was. Relay had been looking in the garden, and she hadn't seen him. Again.

The falcon gave a faint hiss of rebuke to herself; she was supposed to be able to help her perch-human, but instead she'd allowed Mandrake to escape. And Maxine, the one with dull-human-eyesight, had been the one to find him first.

Relay flew towards the small creature as quickly as she could without crashing into the tree, then angled herself upwards to search the branches. She spotted the small person atop one limb, leaning against the tree trunk.

He looked at the falcon tiredly, panting slightly, and struggled up onto the tree-limb just above the one he was on. After that, though, he didn't try to run. Relay flew up and landed atop the tree-limb, eyeing the small person suspiciously.

She noticed a steady trickle of dark, red-brown blood seeping down his right arm, staining part of his bat-cloak with the acidic substance.

Boggan-blood was known to be almost as foul as the deadly rot-spreading black ooze, and could slightly burn a creature if they touched it. Plants were more vulnerable though. The tree-limb already had a thin wisp of smoke wafting up where the liquid dripped onto it!

"Heyy!" Maxine called up, worried, "Yyoou okaayy uup therre?" Relay gave a small half-trill to reassure the human, but kept her attention focused on her quarry.

He still looked tired, clutching his arm with his other hand and leaning against the tree-bark, which was starting to crumble into gray ashes. Relay bobbed her head twice, slowly, and gave a faint hiss: curious, wary.

"Hm," the small person scoffed with a slightly ragged breath and a small humorless smile, "Persistent,-aren't-you?" Relay tilted her head slowly, still being careful. She didn't trust this Boggan.

The small person leaned his back against the tree-trunk, tilting his head back. He let out a faltering, half-hearted howling noise, which made Relay cringe and hiss for a second.

No bats or Boggans riding on shiny black prey-birds appeared.

The Boggan-leader slid down on the tree branch, leaning his back and head against the trunk, where gray rot was rapidly spreading. The falcon hissed again in alarm and warning.

Mandrake opened his eyes to glance at the slowly decaying tree bark, and he chuckled slightly- a tired, rasping noise.

"Whirrlwiinnd?" Maxine called up again, sounding worried. Relay gave another trill-screech of assurance, and hopped cautiously closer to the little person. He groaned a little at her approach and tilted his head away to look towards the forest.

He sighed, "At-this-rate-I'll-_never_-make-it-back-to-Wrathwood..." Relay squawked quietly and shook her head; it would be bad for the forest if Mandrake got back and took control of his forces again.

More dark blood was dribbling onto the branch, and it creaked faintly, a dangerous sound that the Peregrine's ears quickly picked up on. She screeched louder now, uneasy.

The branch started trembling faintly, bending downwards, and Relay flapped off of it to hover nearby. The branch's creaking slowed, but continued nonetheless.

Relay screeched to the little creature laying on it, but he only shifted his head a little. Finally, abandoning caution, the falcon swooped forward and plucked him up in her talons, then flew out of the tree quickly, ducking between branches and thick leaves.

She screeched at Maxine and Tumbleweed and flapped her wings at them, warning them away from the rapidly failing branch and then flying away from it herself. The cat darted away into the garden, his tail fluffing up and his remaining ear flattening back behind his head.

Maxine started moving away, then gasped as the entire tree limb creaked loudly again, and swung down, branches clattering like a windstorm.

The human leaped away, fell over, and scrambled backwards as the branches crashed down, a dying chorus of rustling leaves and snapping wood.

The falcon screeched in alarm as the huge mass tumbled down, directly in front of her perch-human, almost on top of her! But it just barely missed the human's head and shoulders, crashing to a halt near her outstretched legs and feet.

When it all quieted, Relay could hear Maxine's stunned panting, and could see her sitting on the ground in shock, staring at the dead tree-limb. A few thin, jagged little branches and sticks still wavered in the air just above Maxine's knees, pointed wooden ends quivering from the impact with the ground.

Relay called to her, and the human shook her head quickly, then called out a shaky, "Th-thaannks Whiirrlwiind. I'mm, I'm okayy. Uuh, mmostlly."

The girl stood up, wincing slightly, and edged back to the house, "Uhh, comme onn, llett's ggett baacck iinsiide." Tumbleweed snuck over to the fallen tree limb, sniffed it many times, and then trotted through the front door that Maxine held open for him.

Relay flew inside after him, still carrying the little person in her talons. She could feel him breathing slowly. He seemed to actually be asleep! Actually, it wasn't that surprising.

The little creature probably hadn't eaten in several days! Also, he'd been injured when he bounced the jar off the edge of the table. The little glass prison had shattered into many jagged pieces, so it was to be expected that he would've been cut.

The Peregrine felt warm, wet Boggan-blood dripping between her claws and she gave a quick, urgent screech to her perch-human. Help!

Maxine, who'd gone into the 'cih-chin,' came out holding a floppy, square-shaped, flat white thing in one hand. She took one look at the bleeding creature held in Relay's talons, looked down, and then looked up again.

"Heerre," she told Relay, folding the thin white cloth-like square in half and setting it on the glass-surfaced table, "Puut hiimm ovverr hheere aannd llett mmee haavve a lloook."

Relay bobbed her head in thanks, and fluttered over to the thin, cloth-like thing on the table. The girl, crouching there by the table, reached out, and Relay placed the little creature in her hands.

Maxine tilted her head and looked him over, and then gently placed the tiny person on the white cloth-object. She looked concerned when the seeping blood touched her skin, and she got up quickly and went back into the kitchen. Relay heard the 'fahw-sit' pouring water for a moment, and then Maxine speedily returned with more objects in her hands.

There was a clear cylinder with a little bit of water in it, a small tan loop, another clear cylinder with a piece of ice in it, another flat cloth-thing, and a small, thick cylinder: a roll of thin white sticky-stuff (which Relay remembered getting her feathers stuck on by accident when she was little and exploring.).

The human set the items down next to the unconscious little person. Then she sighed, "Wwelll, iif tthhaat aankle waasnn't sprraainned beeforre, iit iiss nnoww!" Then she shook her head, "II should wworrk oonn his arrmm ffirrst tthhoough."

The girl ripped off a long piece of the white cloth-object and laid it nearby. She then tore off a smaller piece and dunked it in the water, and carefully touched the little creature's bleeding arm with it.

The acidic blood sizzled, wisps of smoke rising from the tiny piece of wet cloth-thing.

Maxine gasped slightly and pulled back, looking in surprise at the rapidly disintegrating little scrap. She tossed it onto the larger, folded white-cloth thing, where the decay finally stopped after another few seconds.

So the human tore off a bigger piece of thin-cloth, dipped it in the water, and patted it carefully on the still-bleeding arm. Then again, with a none-bloodied edge, and again. Once all the clean spots were used up and it was too damaged to keep using, she left to get rid of the stained piece of what-ever-the-cloth-thing-was-called.

***_point of view switch_***

When she came back, Maxine cleaned off the arm- which was still bleeding, but less- one more time with another piece of damp paper towel. She put that down- avoiding the disintegrating parts- and then wrapped the long piece of the paper towel around the wound a few times.

After that, the girl ripped off a piece of tape and stuck it on the makeshift bandage. There, done. As she prepared to work on the little creature's ankle, she noticed that the lower limbs were shaped differently than those of humans. Cooooolll...

Glad that there were no other humans around, Maxine glanced around anyway, then crept over. And then she picked up the little person's uninjured leg by the foot and wiggled it.

(The girl couldn't help herself- she was naturally curious, which was why she'd constantly catch and study bugs- and then let them go of course.)

Ooh, interesting placement of joints. The knee was higher up, and then there was this little foot or ankle joint a little higher than the heel, and there were neat little spine-things on back of the lower leg, it was maybe reptilian or insect-like, very cool...

Of course, that was when the small person woke up.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello, once again! Our cat, who I call Jaeger, decided that my feet were mice that he had to kill last night, so he clawed the undersides of my feet a bit. Naughty little hairball, but we love 'im. Sorry that this chapter's kind of short- I lengthened it the best I could.**

**To Brucrew17: Glad you like it, and thank you. Well, I pre-wrote most of the parts of all the chapters a couple weeks ago, so I'm just putting in finishing touches and tweaks before I update. There's no need to apologize, I like off-topic things and I'm grateful for the very kind praise. Good idea; I need to type up some more chapters before I run out. Thank you so very much!**

**To Brainyxbat: Alright, thank you. :) And you're welcome- I really enjoyed reading it!**

The little person blinked open his yellow-y eyes, looked up at the human holding his leg.

"D'yaah!" Maxine yelped in surprise and fell over backwards, at the same time as the little person jumped back and scooted away a couple inches.

Said-person struggled to stand up, but Maxine got up from the floor and shook her head.

"No no no," she told the little person urgently, "It's ok, just stay still. I'm gonna help with your injuries."

Of course he didn't listen, and when Maxine gently pushed him back down, he bit her finger!

"Ow, hey!" the girl exclaimed, yanking her hand away and glaring at him indignantly. She shook her head and held her finger tightly, about two inches above the bite-mark, and went to the sink in the bathroom, right across from the living room.

There, she held it under the faucet, where she turned the temperature up as hot as she could stand. She heard the little nipper ask something, slower than usual, but still just a little too fast for her to understand.

"You mind repeating that?" Maxine called, grimacing at the burning water

"What-are-you-doing?" the little bite-y creature asked, louder and slower.

"Cleaning my finger," the human replied as she finished and walked back into the living room, "So gangrene- or whatever diseases you have- don't spread up my hand and into my entire arm. What kind of diseases _do_ you think you carry anyway?"

The annoyed small person, by now sitting up, wrinkled his nose.

"Lyme's Disease?" the girl guessed as she knelt next to the table, "Bubonic Plague? Rabies?" She shrugged, "Chicken Pox?"

The little thing growled at her.

... "Yeah, probably rabies."

The little person glared at her and Maxine jokingly thought to herself about going to a vet to get the little guy some inoculations, like for a dog.

"Now," Maxine told him, "would you please stay still as I mend that leg of yours?"

The little person looked resentful, then – with an obviously great deal of effort– stood up, balancing mostly on his right leg. Whirlwind shifted her talons on her branch-perch, readying to take flight in case she needed to catch him again.

But the little person merely narrowed his eyes at his injured right arm, which seemed to have stopped bleeding and was wrapped in a thin strip of paper-towel. The little person examined it critically, then shrugged with an annoyed roll of his yellow-y eyes.

He gestured with his uninjured arm at his left leg, where the lower half or so was swollen and a dark purple-ish blue.

Maxine grinned, pleased at finally getting some cooperation, "Thank you. Now I'm going to tie some stuff around your leg to help it start mending, ok?"

The small person stayed right where he was.

"I'm gonna need you to sit down," Maxine clarified, "I don't want you falling over while I'm helping, and then you injure yourself again."

The little person rolled his eyes again and made a noise of irritated disgust, "Ugh,-fine." And he sat down on the roll of tape, looking miffed.

Maxine smiled to herself and tore off a long, thin piece from the second paper towel, then went back to the kitchen. She came back in with a butter knife, put the piece of ice on the table, and hit the ice with the knife-blade.

Tiny pieces of ice went flying, and the little person flung up his arms to stop the little pieces from smacking into him. Maxine tried to muffle a snort of laughter, then picked up one ice-fragment and put it on the piece of white paper towel.

She wrapped it carefully around the little person's left lower leg and foot- making him grimace and squirm- and tied the small, tan rubber-band around it. She then left again, rummaging around in a closet, and came back with a cotton ball.

"Here," she sated, putting it near the small person's wrapped-up leg, "Put your foot on this cotton ball here. Having it elevated's supposed to help." It was obvious that the little person despised taking orders, and hated letting anyone see him in need of help, but he relented and did as he was told.

"Y'know," Maxine mused aloud, speaking quickly for the injured little person's benefit, "I really should find something so you don't have to talk slow or me fast, or use the Nintendo." She pointed at the rectangular device she'd used to understand the little person's speech earlier.

He shrugged with a faint, pitying sneer on his face, and scoffed juuuusst slow enough for Maxine to understand, "I-see-no-reason-for-you-to. -I-won't-be-staying-here-any-longer-than-need-be." 

"And how long's that going to be?" Maxine queried, absently scratching her lower legs and then cleaning off her fingernails, "Whirlwind is _pret_ty keen on not letting you out of here. And I'm starting to agree with her."

Before the little person could voice the angry protest that was so evident in his expression, Maxine gasped delightedly, "Hey! I've got an idea!" –she noticed Whirlwind glaring at the person who looked like he was about to make a snarky comment- "There's a guy who lives nearby, well, as nearby as it gets out here, who I think used to work on making sound devices of some kind. We can go visit _him_!"

Maxine's patient/prisoner let out an exclamation of annoyance and exasperation, and complained something, but too quick for Maxine to understand.

"What was that?" the girl asked, and the small person gave her another pitying sneer, and said with exaggerated slowness, "I-_said_-'Oh-perfect:-**more**-stompers!'"

"'Stompers'?" Maxine asked, cocking her head. The little creature pointed at her, his expression saying that she was an idiot. Realization clicked and Maxine nodded, "_Ohhhh._ Ok. Well, we 'stompers' call ourselves humans."

The little person shrugged dismissively and waved his uninjured arm in dismissal. Whatever.

"Ok, fine," the girl sighed in slight exasperation, "But we're still going to go visit Mr. Bomba. You have a cool accent, by the way."

"We?" the little person asked sharply, ignoring the compliment. He sounded irked and as if he thought he'd caught her making a mistake in word choice. ((**Like in the movie, "You mean '_their_, borders'?"**))

"Of course," Maxine told him, "You're coming with me. Mr. Bomba's kinda wacky, but real nice. He's been trying to prove for _years_ that there's little people running around the forest. He never mentioned they were snappish or wore dead bats though."


	13. Chapter 13

**Yeeeeeeek I'm so so so very sorry for taking such a long time to update! I promise I hadn't meant to take this long, there were many a'thing going on, I'm sorrrryyyy.**

**To Brucrew17: Thank you very much! Mm? Oh yes, this story happens just a few days after the movie. MK's still with her Dad, and talks with Nod on the video-cams. Sorry about the wait; I hadn't meant to take this long of a break, but I have 2 other main Fics to work on, and more of this Fic to type the rough drafts of. Thank you, and yay! I'm glad you agree- I wanted her character to be unusual but kind and understandable.**

**To Lady Larka: Haha, yes, I'd thought so, and couldn't understand why the subtitles in the movie were referring to them as crows. (Crows are awesome and smart, but they just weren't the birds that were in the movie.) Thank you for reviewing!**

Mandrake glared at the stomper. There was no way that she would be taking him anywhere, especially to be stuck with some other- probably equally stubborn and annoying- stomper.

The girl shook her head at him, ignoring his glare, and got up, stretching her limbs a bit. As she did so, Mandrake again noticed the long, dark streaks of red on the front of the stomper's lower legs. He'd seen the red lines there when the girl was first returning from... well, whatever that other room was with the water-noises.

"What are those from?" Mandrake questioned, pointing. He had a good guess, but he wanted to be sure. The girl glanced over at him, looked where he was pointing, and shrugged.

"Blloood," the girl told him simply. Mandrake was confused; The girl didn't seem bothered by the fact that there were long, bleeding cuts on her lower limbs. How'd they get there anyway?

So he inquired, "From what?"

"Coould yyou pllease ssay that aa biit slowwerr?" the stomper asked, squinting one eye and putting two fingers about a millimeter apart, and probably speaking as fast as she could. Mandrake rolled his eyes and asked again, very slowly this time.

"Ohh. Ffrromm wwhenn tthhe trreee lliimmb ffelll," the girl explained as she began walking away, "Aa coouuplle ooff tthhe rreallyy thiinn brraannches grraazzed mmy lleggs aa lliittlle, buut theyy'rre ffiine. Tthhey'rre onnlly sshhalloow cuuts, bbut II'mm juust gonnnaa wwaash tthhemm oouut nnoww."

'Now'? She hadn't tended to her own injuries first? Even if the scrapes _were_ shallow (to a stomper), why had she seen to the Boggan leader's wounds first? And, wait, tree limb?

'What tree-limb?' Mandrake wondered. When he'd finally managed to get outside, he hadn't seen any fallen branches on the ground. Mandrake remembered escaping and climbing _up_ the tree... The bird had chased him, he'd been exhausted but still tried to call for some Boggans or bats, and then he'd collapsed in the tree, with that bird nearby...

As he was pondering this, the bird, who hadn't moved for some time, bobbed her head at him. She must have seen his puzzled expression. Mandrake turned his head to look at her, and finally stated bluntly, "What."

"Hhyoooo nhhohhht ahhhw-ehyyykh pfheeeffohhrh," (you not awake before) the bird told him, "Hhhpluhhhdt rrhhhhohhttehhdt t'hrreeee." (blood rotted tree)

Ah, well, that made sense, Mandrake decided, nodding to himself in understanding. His blood, and- to a lesser extent- that of Boggans, could be nearly as harmful as the rot-toxins which they'd slowly absorbed over the many, many years of exposure.

"Heeyy!" the stomper called from some other room, "Yyoou'vve ggottaa bee hhunngrry byy nnoww, rriight?" He was, actually. Practically starving- no, _literally_ starving, but the great Boggan leader certainly wasn't going to tell some stomper girl this!

"Ssoo wwhaat doo yyoou eeatt?" the girl continued, "Aannd wwhiille yyoou'rre aatt iit, ccoould yyoou aat _lleeasst_ ttelll mmee yyoourr nnaame?"

The stomper girl emerged from wherever she'd been, her scratches visible but freeof blood. She slowly sat down next to the table where Mandrake still sat, his injured leg still resting on the soft white thing. Not that he'd ever admit appreciating _any_thing of the stompers, but the soft thing felt nice.

Mandrake narrowed his eyes as the girl placed something- a huge plate- on the table. There was a brown sponge-y looking object on it, which the girl lifted off and took a bite of. She then pulled off a tiny piece- about the size of Mandrake's head, and offered it to him, "Iitt's aa peeannutbuttterr saanndwwiich. Brreaad. Sseee?"

The Boggan leader wrinkled his nose and pulled away, even though he wanted to scarf the entire thing down in one grab. The stomper rolled her eyes, sighed, shrugged, and ate the piece of whatever it was.

"_Tthhiirrstyy_, tthhenn, Mmissterr Whhoo-evverr yyoou aarre?" she asked, sounding exasperated. Good.

Mandrake smirked and didn't reply.

The girl paused for a moment, her aggravated expression suddenly melting into a soft, sly grin. A horribly, _horribly_ evil grin.

"Wwwweelllllll..." she told him, the sly smirk widening further, "Tthhenn II gguesss II'lll jjusst hhavve ttoo _tthhiink_ ooff ssommetthhiing ttoo caalll yyoou."

**_Ohh_**... **_Noo_**...

"You wouldn't," Mandrake stated, horrified. His speech was slow enough that the stomper understood him, and she cackled diabolically, "OOOhhhh yyess II wwoould..."

"Iinn ffaact," she continued, grinning in evil glee, "II tthhiink II sshhall caalll yyoouuu... '**Ffllufffyy**.'"

The great leader of the Boggan Army grimaced in horrified disgust. This was humiliating! 'Fluffy,' ugh!

He glowered at the stomper, who was laughing at his expression, one hand over her mouth. He picked up the nearest object- a chunk of ice- and threw it at her. Unfortunately, he'd used his right arm, which'd been torn open when he knocked his glass prison off the table earlier, and he winced, clutching his bandaged limb with a hiss.

The piece of ice hit the stomper right on the forehead and she let out a scoffing laugh of surprise. The girl stopped her snickering and shook her head at him, "II wwaas jjusst teeassiing, ssilllyy."

"Well it _wasn't_, _funny_," Mandrake informed the stomper tartly, curling his lip in a sneer at her.

The stomper chuckled a bit more, and then shrugged, "Wwelll II hhavve ttoo caalll yyoou _somme_tthhiing. Aannd ssincce yyoou rreefuuse ttoo ttelll mmee _aannytthhiing_ aatt aalll, beesiidess tthhaat yyoou caalll huummanns 'sttommperrs,' II tthhiink II sshhoould ccomme upp wwiith ssommetthhiing ttoo ccaall yyoou."

Mandrake refused to satisfy the stomper with any answer. He would've crossed his arms to emphasize his annoyance and distaste of her, but his right one was still hurting.

"Okaayy, okaay," the girl acquiesced, holding up her hands and humoring him, "II'lll thiinnk ooff sommetthhiing _slliightllyy_ llesss hhorrriblle." Mandrake narrowed his eyes at the girl. He didn't believe her.

The stomper picked up the chunk of ice and some of the pieces of ice on the table, then took them into a different room, telling Mandrake to put one of the pieces in the bindings on his leg. Then she returned and thought for a while as she ate her 'peanut-butter-sandwich-bread.'

This left nothing at all for Mandrake to do, other than what she'd told him: replacing the ice. Whatever this stretchy tan thing was, it sure was strong. After almost half a minute, he managed to work a piece of ice under it, during which time it'd already melted some more.

"Ffurrryy," the stomper abruptly stated.

"...What?" Mandrake asked, looking up with a confused face, still adjusting the stretchy thing with one hand.

"Ffurrry," the girl repeated, "Onnllyy tthhiing II coouldd comme upp wwiith, aannd yyoou llook ffurry wwiith tthhat tthhiing onn yyoour hheadd."

"No!" Mandrake exclaimed indignantly, "No! You cannot call me F-'Furry'!"

The bird, who'd been quietly observing all this time, bobbed her head and trilled, "Phffhhurrrhhhyyy." (Furry).

Mandrake groaned and put his head in his hand, muttering under his breath, "I'm going to escape, fetch my army, and rot you all down to your bones and feed them to a bear. An entire pack of starving rabid bears, and then I'm going to dump whatever is left into a vat of rot and then I'm going to burn it and then I'm going to throw it at those wretched Leafmen."

The bird, the only one here who could understand him, simply blinked and repeated "Phffhhurrrhhhyyy."


	14. Chapter 14

**Hiii. I need to type up more chapters- I've run out!**

**To TabKinesis: Ahhh, actually not. Thank you for pointing that out though. They a_re_ indeed calling him 'Furry.'**** But you're right, hehe, he _is_ a little 2-inch ball a' anger!**

**To AliceCullen3: Thank you very much. I'm really glad you like it!**

**To BrainyxBat: Hahaha, yeah, I was hoping some would share his horror (and my amusement). *Gasps* Oh my word you're right! 8D Can I use that?**

**To Brucrew17: Yeah, he is a mean little thingy. Heh heh heh, yup. Relay, though a predatory animal and not usually one for humor, does sometimes enjoy giving well-deserved teasing. Thanks!**

Relay smiled a raptor smile, her beak opening slightly, eyes crinkling in amusement and feathers fluffing up a tiny bit. The small person's outrage in regard to Maxine's idea of a name was amusing.

But, amusing as it was, Relay needed to leave so that she could hunt. Though she did not depend on hunting for food, it was preferable to staying inside the building and eating long-dead pieces of unknown things.

The Peregrine gave a calm trill-screech to inform her perch-human, and fluttered over to the door. There she landed and bobbed her dark head at Maxine.

The girl got up from where she had been eating and, still watching the small person in case he attempted to escape again, she opened the door for Relay. The falcon bobbed her head in thanks, and flapped up into the air.

"Bee caarefull oout therre!" the human called, and Relay called back a reassuring screech. Her perch-human worried for her in a similar way that a parent-raptor would worry for their fledglings.

But the girl would not have to worry- Relay was careful not to enter any other Peregrines' hunting grounds that she knew of- to do so would be seen as competition, especially if she stayed long. She also took only a small amount of prey from different places in the forest, so no one else's hunting would be greatly decreased.

After longer than one long-shift of the sun, Relay had caught an orange-belly gray prey-bird, and sat on a branch to pluck it. Eating feathers was not good to do; they could get caught in a raptor's throat, or poke into it. And they tickled.

As the Peregrine tore into her meal eagerly, she heard the sounds of flapping. She gulped down a piece of meat as she turned her head to look, and spotted River Sand flying towards her.

Relay picked up her catch and hopped to the side, giving the younger hawk room to land on a slightly elevated section. River Sand bobbed his head and alighted there, clenching the wood very tightly in his talons.

"What is the reason for your agitation?" Relay inquired, cocking her head as she observed how tense the male was. River Sand shifted along the branch, digging his claws in. His feathers were clearly fluffed up, his head pulled in, and his wings hunched.

"There have been Leafmen following my mother and myself," he told her, turning his head to search as if for pursuers, "It disturbs our hunting and makes us uneasy. We worry that the reason for their action is because we assisted you in opening the huge blight-lump which contained the Boggan leader."

There was the tiniest bit of accusation in the suggestion, but it was understandable.

Relay ducked her head low in apology for possibly causing her friends difficulty, "I am sorry for any trouble my actions have resulted in, River Sand. Perhaps we can find a way to explain to the Leafmen that the bad creature is at my perch-human's home, and is less of a danger now."

"That will most likely be difficult," the hawk warned gravely, "It is difficult to use their language of only-noise-speaking. And, from what we all have observed over the seasons, the Leafmen act as though they believe that raptors are the same as _prey-birds_ in regards to intelligence."

Relay narrowed her eyes and gave a soft hiss, acknowledging the irritation and difficulty that would result. She mentioned grimly, "If the Leafmen believe us all to be the same as prey-birds, and they observed us removing the blight-lump, perhaps as a result they might think that the Boggans tell us what to do, as with their bats."

River Sand hissed vehemently in disgust at the idea, then added in concerned warning, "I believe the Leafmen may search most for you, Relay. They seem to only search for the three of us who removed the giant blight-lump that the bad creature was in. The human-made things that you wear are most recognizable, and the Leafmen may look for them to distinguish you from other raptors."

The Peregrine bobbed her head slowly, then came to a decision. "I will attempt to have the Leafmen follow me. Thus, they will not be bothering you or Sunny Ash. And if they understand and are willing to listen, I can show them that the small creature is contained in the home of my perch-human."

Having Leafmen following her would be unnerving- the raptors found it uncomfortable to be followed. And, of course, Leafmen could be dangerous with their large numbers and pointed weapons.

River Sand knew this and bobbed his head in great appreciation, ducking low in gracious respect. "Thank you," he told Relay, "I appreciate this, and I am certain that Sunny Ash will as well. I will hunt once more and then tell her."

"The Leafmen," he added, pausing in his preparation for takeoff, "when I last saw them, were a small distance to the North of here, resting their tiny buzzing quick-birds in a thin oak tree. May your hunting and flying go well, Relay."

"And yours," Relay answered, dipping her head as River Sand extended his wings to fly. The hawk gave a trill of friendly farewell, and took to the sky, flapping hard to hunt and then return home.

Relay finished eating her meal, rested for a tiny-shift of the sun, and then flew off to search for the Leafmen. Most likely they would be searching for raptors, so that would increase the chances of Relay locating them or them locating and following her.

After roughly one tiny-shift of the sun later, Relay discovered that, yes, the Leafmen had found her! She could hear the sounds of their tiny buzzing quick-birds behind her, and figured that the Leafmen were trying to follow or sneak up on her.

The Peregrine turned around in midair, causing many of the Leafmen to make noises of surprise. Relay bobbed her head and trilled to show that she was friendly and meant them no harm.

Apparently though, Leafmen did not understand this, and quickly steered their tiny birds away to hide in the trees. Relay hissed slightly in irritation and dove after them- slower than usual, so she wouldn't accidentally hit any.

"Hooaaa_yyyht'h_," (Wait) she called, but they didn't seem to hear her, or they didn't understand. The falcon tried to follow them through the trees, but the Leafmen and their little birds were too quick and nimble in the thick foliage.

Relay needed open space to fly quickly, and there was barely any room for her to maneuver here.

She called a trilling screech to the fleeing persons, but they either didn't understand, or chose to ignore it. Said-persons had their tiny buzzing quick-birds perch deep in the thick leaves of the tree. At least they hadn't left. But still, the Peregrine hissed in frustration, and landed on a branch to wait.

*_Leafmen Point-O'-View_*

"It's definitely one of the birds we saw," a Leafman reported to Nod, who was leading the group, "Has the exact same straps on its legs!" "I wonder what they're for," a Leafwoman mused, peering through the leaves at the large bird.

"Heh, you'd have to ask the Boggans for that one," another scoffed, making everyone jokingly grimace at the idea. Boggans were their sworn enemies after all, and couldn't speak anyway. The squad continued to wait, and a few darted out to check if there were any more coming. Nothing.

"Hey, did anybody notice?" Nod asked, sounding confused, "There's no Boggan rider on it." As if in reply, the bird flapped its wings and made a loud noise. It flapped off its perch and began circling above the Leafmen's hiding spot, flying away and then returning several times.

"Think it wants us to follow it?" Nod inquired, considering just that. The bird made another screeching noise, as though it were agreeing.

"No, it's probably a trap," an older Leafman warned, "This thing helped Mandrake escape, remember? It could be trained to lead us right into an ambush." The creature shrieked overhead, a harsh, angry sound.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Nod reluctantly agreed, "Let's keep moving; maybe we can spot some Boggans nearby in the forest." Secretly though, the adventurous young Leafman planned to find the bird and follow it later on his own.

*_Back with Relay_*

The Peregrine hissed in defeat, watching the group of Leafmen flying away on their tiny buzzing quick-birds. She couldn't follow them through the forest, so she decided to go searching for other Leafmen.

She hoped to contact _some_ of them, for she knew that there were many, and hoped that some would listen.

However, after another two long-shifts of the sun, Relay had found only two other groups, and these also had hidden in the trees from her. Relay searched for- and found- Sunny Ash, and apologized for being unable to get the Leafmen to understand, and most likely, to stop following the raptors.

Sunny Ash understood, offering her sympathies, and happily accepted the squirrel that Relay had caught for her and River Sand. It was a gift to make up for probably-causing the trouble, and for not yet correcting it.

Her apologies made, the falcon now soared up higher into the sky, enjoying the cool dampness of thick clouds that soothed her tired wings. It was harder to soar without thermals, but the cooler temperature eased her muscles and overly-warm feathers.

After a little over two tiny-shifts of the sun, Relay tucked her wings and dove, hurtling down through the sky for the sheer joy and exhilaration of it. She had a small amount of time left before she estimated that her perch-human would begin worrying, and wondered what to do with it.

She decided to again visit the small creature that she had saved. It/he was most likely still in that half-fallen-over tree that the Leafmen used as a place for healing. The healers' reactions when Relay'd deposited the small creature there, days ago, had been very startled.

Relay guessed that seeing a raptor drop off the injured son of the Boggan-leader during a storm was rather unusual for them.


	15. Chapter 15

**Yo, hola, konbonwa, guten nacht, and greetings in various languages! Also, wow, this story's getting a lot longer than I'd thought. Hooray!**

**To TabKinesis: Hah, thanks. Thank you for liking my story! And thank you for waiting. Unfortunately, I won't be able to update for a while though, sorry...**

******To Brucrew17: Ahh, that's where I change a bit of the movie's plot. My theory is that Relay, being of the fastest species of bird in the world, could've- no, wait! I can't tell anyone yet- that's coming up later. Sorry! And no, in this story, he isn't dead. Thank you so very much much, I really appreciate your compliments!**

**To BrainyxBat: YAAaaaayy thank you so very much! Yer' idea of calling him 'Batman' is really good, and also really funny, thank you so very much again! Heh, yeah, poor him, I abuse the little Furry so. X) **

**To AliceCullen3: Wow, thank you very much! I'm glad ya like it. Is your picture-thingy one of Doctor Who? (I love that show.)**

Relay was pleased with how her visit had gone. The small, injured little Boggan prince was recovering quite well from that deep arrow wound, and he had been happy to see her. He'd asked how his Dad was, and Relay'd done her best to explain that the Boggan leader was safe.

The Healers and their apprentices at the Healing-Place, built inside a half fallen-down tree trunk, had been startled by Relay's arrival, but they warily let her stay.

She'd heard one of them suggesting to another about telling the Leafmen that 'that bird' had visited. Relay didn't mind this, but worried a little about what those soldiers might do if they found the recovering little Boggan person. But, the Healers were mostly Leafmen people, and they were compassionate, so Relay was not very worried.

As the falcon finally returned home, gliding past the tree in front of the building, she could hear Maxine talking inside. Clouds were thickening in the sky, causing everything to darken slightly wit ha grayish tint.

Relay turned her attention from the oncoming storm, back to the sound of her perch-human's voice. The girl sounded startled.

"Yyaagh!" the human yelped, "Whaat are yoou doing in Tummbleweeed's llitterrbox?! Oout!"

... That was an odd thing to hear the girl say. The Peregrine falcon tucked in her wings and swooped lower, then landed atop the 'win-doe-sill.' The clear material of the window was slide to one side, opened so that Relay could easily enter, and she hopped in.

What the falcon saw was both confusing and startling; the small bad creature had clambered out of the smelly-thing-where-Tumbleweed-buried-feces, and was laughing and half-hopping, half-running away from Maxine, who chased him.

This was indeed a very strange sight. Also, the small creature was carrying a 'cyoo-tihp,' a thin white twig-like thing with tiny white fibers on the ends. The nubby end of the 'cyoo-tihp' had been removed and sharpened, and one of these had a glob of cat-feces on it, so it resembled a bizarre version of the stick-with-rot-goo.

"Comme _back_ here you llittle turrnip!" Maxine was yelling, but had a laughing grin on her face as she chased the small creature, being very careful not to step on him. (**And yes, she did just randomly call Mandrake a turnip. Why? T'is funny and fun.**)

Relay found this to all be very confusing, so instead of her usual trill or screech to announce her arrival, she gave an uncertain squawk.

Maxine turned to look, took a longer step as she ran, and then looked alarmed and stumbled, flailing her hands out in front of her to stop herself from falling on the floor. It looked like a sloppy 'poosh-uhp,' some kind of exercise that the human did sometimes.

"Ohh my goodness I didnn't squiish you diid I?!" the girl yelped, horrified and panicked. She had _almost_ landed on the small person, but by holding herself up on her arms, had stopped that from happening. Just in case of injury to her perch-human, Relay swooped over and landed on the floor in front of her.

The Boggan leader had been trying to stop and turn around, but still skidded forward and slid into the human's curtain of long rust-brown hair, which dangled on the floor and got tangled up.

"Whooa!" Maxine stated in mildly startled surprise, pulling her head up and tilting it to the opposite side to look down at the little creature trying to escape from her hair. The girl then grimaced and wrinkled her nose when she saw that he was still holding the feces-tipped object.

Maxine sat up slowly and held one hand under the person, carefully untangling her hair from around him. The little creature squirmed and batted clumsily at the human's fingers, wincing when moved his injured arm.

"No waait, eeasy, easy, no, jusst stayy still Furry!" Maxine complained, adding "Ow ow ow" when her hair got yanked too hard- probably on purpose. Finally, with Relay holding the long clump of hair in her beak and Maxine carefully untying the knots and messes of it, they got the small creature out.

He looked entirely disheveled, cloak twisted askew over his head and one shoulder, and looking highly uncomfortable because of the hair-ordeal.

He also scowled at the girl. "What," the human scoffed, "You don't liike having me caall yyou 'Furry'?" The small creature nodded firmly.

"Arre you going too tell me yyer' reeal naame?" Maxine asked expectantly. The little person scowled again and crossed his arms, even though the injured one must've hurt.

"Pff, welll ok," the human responded, "Thenn I'll juusst keeep calling yyou Furrry." She suddenly snorted, "Unless yyou'd preefer I call yyou 'Batman.'" (**Thank you, BrainyxBat!**)

Neither the small person nor Relay understood why this was funny, but the falcon recalled seeing her perch-human staring at the 'tee-vee,' (a big-flat-rectangle thing that could be dark and silent or noisy and bright) and saying that 'Batman' was on.

Relay didn't know what that meant, but decided to ignore it. There were uncountable things about humans and Maxine in particular that the Peregrine didn't understand, but that was ok.

"II am puttiing yoou back onn the taable," Maxine told the small person firmly, "Whirrlwind, Tummbleweed, can yoou guys keep waatch? I hafta taake a showwer." She gestured with a grimace at her hair.

Tumbleweed, lounging on the 'chayr' that Maxine usually sat on to stare at rectangular-stacks-of-flipping-white-leaves at night, lifted his head and gave a lazy yawn, "Mrrowwrrl." Then he looked at the table, looked back at the trio, and put his head back down on the 'chayr.'

The girl laughed and told him with a grin, "Thannk you forr your compliance, O greeat annd mightyy chaiir-cat." The cat blinked slowly and yawned again, baring his sharp white teeth.

Maxine placed the small person gently on the table and dropped a crinkly clear container of poofy white round things next to him.

"Uuse these iif your leg neeeds support, or iif ya wannna llay dowwn or sommething," Maxine told the little person, asking, "Byy the way, are yyou gonna tell mee _what _on _Earth_ yyou waanted c_aat-poop_ forr?"

The little creature shrugged, tilting his head and closing his eyes for a second, conveying that he really didn't care and wasn't going to tell her. The human sighed, rolled her eyes tolerantly, and left, calling back, "Aand don't use ththose cottton-balls for throwing, ok?"

She didn't wait for an answer, and disappeared behind a corner. When the girl came back later almost one long-shift of the sun later, wearing different clothes and with a 'ta-wll' wrapped around her hair, the small person was throwing the poofy white things and Tumbleweed was chasing them.

The human girl blinked slowly, turning her head to watch as the unrepentant Boggan leader tossed another white-thing, and the cat leaped about to catch it.

"Uhh-_huh_," the girl stated, lifting one eyebrow and smiling ever-so-slightly, "Great at following directions, I see." The small person turned his head to grin at her, then threw a poofy-thing in Tumbleweed's face when the cat suddenly put his paws and head up close on the table edge.

Maxine laughed when the cat jumped back and swatted at the poofy thing, looking offended. Then she gasped, and everyone jumped slightly, when a rumbling, slow crash tumbled from the clouds, booming faintly like large, falling boulders.

Thunder. There was a storm about to begin, one which Relay had sensed building throughout the day. It would be a big storm, with many cloud-flashes and rumbling and heavy rain.

Maxine gasped very slowly, eyes growing wide, and a huge smile of awe and delight spread across her face, "Coooooolll...!" The small person turned to stare at the girl with an expression that showed he thought there was something wrong with her.

The girl rushed across the room to jump onto the soft 'cowch,' which was up against the biggest window for exactly this purpose: watching storms.

She must've scratched at the cuts on her legs while in the 'sha-wrr,' because she left thin smudges of light red on the couch. She didn't seem to notice or care yet.

Eager, the girl turned to grin excitedly at the small person, "You wanna waatch?" The human knew that Tumbleweed and Relay disliked storms, which was why she hadn't asked them to join her.

After a moment of slightly confused consideration, the small person finally nodded slowly.

"Awwesome!" Maxine half-gasped, half-exclaimed, a thrilled laugh in her voice. She carefully picked up the small person and placed him on the highest part of the couch next to her, jumping when another chorus of thunder rumbled from the sky.

Relay flapped over, grabbed the ridge on the side of the screen-part for the opened window, and slid the screen closed, not wanting to allow the small creature the chance to escape. He glared at her for a second, but then went back to watching the storm with Maxine.

The cloud-flashes, lightning, darted through the sky, making the girl gasp in delight and awe. The rumbling bellows of thunder made her jump and laugh, wriggling with excitement.

The Boggan leader looked confused and faintly annoyed at the human's reactions at first, but eventually grinned.

Relay couldn't understand why they both liked the loud, disorienting, dangerous storm of lightning, thunder, wind, and rain, but they did look quite happy watching it.

**Ok! Um, I'm not going to be allowed to go on FanFiction for about a month, so... Well, I'm really sorry. But once I can, I'll try my very best to update a lot!**


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